Question: why is there no mammal with green fur

Kevin Mahon answered on 19 Jun 2012:

Good one! Seems like an obvious choice given the camoflage it would provide in many environments, but it is curiously absent!

Simply, the answer is because mammals make two kinds of pigments, neither of which can form green in any way.

Obviously this is only a good explanation for ‘here and now’, an interesting question is why have mammals evolved to not be able to make this pigmentation and therefore green fur – unfortunately we don’t know this yet, we can speculate as to why but we don’t have the evidence to say why confidently yet!

A few years ago, a group of researchers in Japan inserted a gene encoding green fluorescent protein from jellyfish into the mouse genome to make mice that fluoresce bright green when illuminated with a blue light! Obviuously, we just got impatient waiting for a green mammal and made our own!