Self-Decapitating Sea Slugs Can Grow an Entire New Body on The Old Head

We know Lizards can shed their tail when grabbed by a predator and regrow it later but now we also know that Elysia cf. marginata and E. atroviridis Sea Slugs can detach their whole body and grow another one should the get infested by parasites.... beat that reptilians !

The discovery, the researchers report, was an accidental one. In his lab, Yusa and his students study sea slugs for their entire life cycle. Mitoh was working with the animals one day when she saw one that had autotomised; that is, dropped part of its body, like a lizard dropping its tail.

Except, it wasn't just a tail. The entire body had been dropped - and the head was moving around on its own.

"We were surprised to see the head moving just after autotomy," she said. "We thought that it would die soon without a heart and other important organs, but we were surprised again to find that it regenerated the whole body."

The researchers set out to study what was going on, and found an astonishing process.

What makes this feat of evolution so impressive for me is it takes the creature several days to regenerate its heart so it lives and feeds for that time without one ... but what's the point of feeding when you've left you stomach behind , and your behind for that matter.

Within a few hours of autotomy, the heads of young slugs started feeding. The wound at the neck healed within a few days. The heart started regenerating within a week - and within just three weeks, the sea slug had a whole new body, good as new. One individual even did it twice.
www.sciencealert.com...

But there's always a catch and this one is it only seemed be be successful for younger Sea Slugs with older Sea Slug heads failing to regenerate and dying.

Nature , sometimes bonkers but always amazing.

I imagine in 100 years or so we will be able to mimic nature. Which os why I am going to have my head frozen, cuz my bod suks ass at the moment.

So slugs are superior to humans....sounds about right. A slug never lies to others for personal gain.

a reply to: gortex

This is truly dumbfounding!

Imagine if humans could do this. It would have driven Maximilien de Robespierre bonkers during the French Revolution and his Reign of Terror!

originally posted by: Encia22
a reply to: gortex

This is truly dumbfounding!

Imagine if humans could do this. It would have driven Maximilien de Robespierre bonkers during the French Revolution and his Reign of Terror!

So would Henry VIII... He had two of his queens beheaded... I wonder how Margaret Pole's feet would have looked, wasn't she killed by a clumsy axman? I think he hit the back of her head (not killing her) and then her shoulders (not killing her) before he finally got her neck. Ugh, makes me shudder just thinking about it...

Maybe we can splice it’s DNA into our own. Move aside axolotls, we shall become superior slugmen now.

originally posted by: Encia22
a reply to: gortex

This is truly dumbfounding!

Imagine if humans could do this. It would have driven Maximilien de Robespierre bonkers during the French Revolution and his Reign of Terror!

I don’t know about Max but id probably have boiled them instead. Oil or water. Feet or head first. There are a surprising variety of options with boiling, almost as many as flaying.

originally posted by: Encia22
a reply to: gortex

This is truly dumbfounding!

Imagine if humans could do this. It would have driven Maximilien de Robespierre bonkers during the French Revolution and his Reign of Terror!

Or he could have discovered a true genius for inspired malicious devilry. Metal. Boiling in molten metal could be spectacularly graphic and painful.

I remember reading something similar about starfish.

If you sever one of the arms, a new arm grows back. And the severed arm grows back a new starfish.

It stunned me when I discovered this fact as a teenager and still does.

They have Deadpool type super power.

Incredible!

Here's a video of the head moving around:


www.youtube.com...