Whether you adore them, or they give you the creeps, there’s no denying that bats are an incredibly-evolved species.

They’re they only mammal that can fly, they use echolocation to constantly map and adapt their flight path, and they can range in size between just over an inch to over five feet in wingspan.

Moreover, bats can live a really long time, with the oldest-known bat living to the ripe old age of 41.

But if there’s one bat fact that will blow all the others out of the water it’s one that has been newly-discovered by researchers at the University of Georgia.

According to their recent study, which was recently published in the journal Ecology and Evolution, these dark-dwelling creatures have been keeping a wild adaptation from us this whole time.

That’s because in their project, the researchers discovered that six bat species effectively glow in the dark, emitting a greenish hue under UV light.

And with this new knowledge in mind, as Georgia’s Steven Castleberry explains in a statement, the experts are trying to discover exactly why the creatures would have evolved to have this funky adaptation:

“It may not seem like this has a whole lot of consequence, but we’re trying to understand why these animals glow. It’s cool, but we don’t know why it happens. What is the evolutionary or adaptive function? Does it actually serve a function for the bats?”

Across the course of their study, the researchers found that the creatures give off this green light from their wings and back legs, with the team considering that the photoluminescence could once have been a method of communication between individuals.

The fact that many bat species would be able to see these wavelengths of light strengthened this hypothesis, with the helpful function of the adaptation perhaps helping the bats to survive in some way, hence it was able to spread though the species, Castleberry continued:

“It’s ultimately some sort of mutation, and then that mutation somehow gets perpetuated usually because it’s beneficial. Individuals that have that trait tend to survive and reproduce better, so it gets more common in the population. The data suggests that all these species of bats got it from a common ancestor. They didn’t come about this independently. It may be an artifact now, since maybe glowing served a function somewhere in the evolutionary past, and it doesn’t anymore.”

Whatever the purpose, there’s no denying that this may be the coolest evolutionary adaptation yet.

Thought that was fascinating? Here’s another story you might like: Why You’ll Never See A Great White Shark In An Aquarium