The sea slug chops off its head-grows an entire new body twice.
“It is one of the “most extreme” examples of regeneration ever seen.”
“The slug’s incredible feat of regeneration can be achieved in just a couple of weeks and is absolutely mind-blowing.”
The following written content by Harry Baker
Two species of sea slugs can pop off their heads and regrow their entire bodies from the noggin down, scientists in Japan recently discovered. This incredible feat of regeneration can be achieved in just a couple of weeks and is absolutely mind-blowing.
Most cases of animal regeneration — replacing damaged or lost body parts with an identical replacement — occur when arms, legs or tails are lost to predators and must be regrown. But these sea slugs, which belong to a group called sacoglossans, can take it to the next level by regrowing an entirely new body from just their heads, which they seem to be able to detach from their original bodies on purpose.
If that wasn’t strange enough, the slugs’ heads can survive autonomously for weeks thanks in part to their unusual ability to photosynthesize like plants, which they hijack from the algae they eat. And if that’s still not enough in the bizarro realm, the original decapitated body can also go on living for days or even months without their heads.
“We believe that this is the most extreme form of autonomy and regeneration in nature,” lead author Sayaka Mitoh, a doctoral student at Nara Women’s University in Japan, told Live Science.
Further investigations revealed that another species of sacoglossan sea slug (Elysia atroviridis) also undergoes this type of regeneration and that certain individuals can pull off the trick more than once.
How to grow a brand-new body
Mitoh first stumbled across this bizarre behavior by accident when she spotted the detached head of a sacoglossan sea slug (Elysia cf. marginata) circling its detached body in a tank at the Yusa Lab at Nara Women’s University in 2018.
“One day, I found an individual of Elysia cf. marginata with its head and its body separated,” Mitoh said. “I thought the poor slug would die soon.” Read more from Live Science.
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