What Do Red Blood Cells Do?
Reviewed: Dr. Gromatzky
10. Other Colors
As mentioned, our blood is red thanks to the presence of iron in hemoglobin. Some animals, however, have evolved to use different elements, resulting in blood that has a very different color to ours. Arthropods, for example, have hemocyanin instead of hemoglobin. This substance contains copper, giving their blood a distinctly blue color.
Many worms and leeches will have green colored blood, thanks to a protein known as chlorocruorin, while some beetles and marine animals have yellow blood. This is because of the presence of vanadium in their blood. Some animals even have purple blood, thanks to the presence of hemerythrin.
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