According to a new study by scientists at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, bioluminescence first evolved in a marine invertebrate at least 540 million years ago. The research results published in the Journal of the Royal Society B on the 23rd have advanced the earliest appearance of the characteristic of luminescence on animals by nearly 300 million years.

Bioluminescence, also known as the ability of organisms to produce light through chemical reactions. It has independently evolved at least 94 times in nature and involves various behaviors, including disguise, courtship, communication, and hunting. The earliest origin of animal luminescence is believed to have occurred approximately 267 million years ago among small marine crustaceans of the Ostracoda class.