A bizarre new glow in the dark sea turtle has been compared to an “alien ship” after being spotted swimming in the ocean off the Solomon Islands.
It’s already been dubbed the “bad trip turtle” due to the distinctly hippyish vibe of its brightly-coloured shell, but its really called a Hawksbill Sea Turtle.
The mutant neon turtle is the first reptile observed exhibiting a natural trait called biofluorescence , which gives creatures the sort of patterns more associated with a rave than a rainforest.
This rare trait means the turtle absorbs light and then reflects it in a different colour.
The phenomenon is quite different from bioluminescence which allow beasties to produce weird shades via a chemical reaction.
“I’ve been [studying turtles] for a long time and I don’t think anyone’s ever seen this,” Alexander Gaos, director of the Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Initiative, told National Geographic.