A University of North Dakota biologist who studies green-blooded lizards will be featured on Animal Planets "OSheas Big Adventure II: Green Blood" this Sunday, Nov. 5, 9 p.m. Central.The show revolves around Dr. Christopher Austin, UND assistant professor of biology, who collected blood samples from green-blooded lizards this summer. Mark OShea, host of the Animal Planet show, tagged along with a film crew. And for good reason: Austin is the only scientist in the world studying the green-blooded lizards."We actually shot this on location in New Guinea this summer. We spent three weeks filming," said Austin. "What we were after was to collect blood samples from three lizards: the yellow-footed green-blooded skink, the prehensile-tailed green-blooded skink, and the green green-blooded skink."Green blood? Absolutely, said Austin. These lizards–seven species, five of which have been described–have green blood, and even green muscles, because of extremely high concentration of bile pigment in their systems. It is bile pigment that is involved in liver disease and which turns some newborn babies yellow from jaundice. It is also the same pigments involved in liver disease. It only takes small amounts of the pigment to give a person the symptoms of jaundice. Much more and the pigment is lethal.But not to these green-blooded lizards, who are able to handle concentrations of the pigments 40 times the highest level ever recorded in a human (who subsequently died from the concentration). How do these green-blooded lizards do it? Nobody knows, and only Austin is seeking the answer.The green-blooded lizards were first described in Science magazine in 1969. But scientists paid little attention to the lizards until Austin began studying them for his dissertation nearly 21 years later.A molecular geneticist, Austin seeks to find out whether green-blood evolved once (whether the seven species have evolved from a single source) or whether it has evolved more times (from more than one source). Most of the lizards are found only in New Guinea. Ultimately, Austins work could have ramifications for how treating bile- and liver-related problems.