Video: Japanese scientists discover sea slugs that create new bodies after beheading

Scientists have discovered that sea slugs can live up to 10 days without a head through photosynthesis (Reproduction / Youtube)
With information UOL

MANAUS – Japanese scientists have discovered a new level of regeneration in the animal world, attesting that some types of sea slugs can create new bodies after beheaded. The study published this week by ‘Nara Women’s University’ tested 16 sea slugs. After the beheading, six managed to regenerate and three survived the biological “attack”. One even managed to recreate her body twice.

According to the research, published in a biology journal, the slugs that regenerated were of two different species found especially in Japan. With the discovery, scientists intend to take advantage of data in research on human tissue regeneration.

One of the researchers responsible for the study, Sayaka Mitoh, said the AP agency that she loves to study sea slugs because they are small, cute and strange. She explained that some species can even do photosynthesis as if they were a plant.

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One day, while working in the laboratory, she noticed something different: One of the slugs had beheaded itself, but its head was still moving. Then, some others did the same, according to the report made available in the ‘Current Biology’ Magazine.

In the animal kingdom, other creatures can also regenerate. The Planarias, for example. Others can disconnect parts of the body when necessary, such as the lizards, which even leave their tail behind to escape predators more easily, in a practice biologically defined as autotomy.

“We think this is the most extreme case of autotomy,” said professor and coordinator of the study, Yoichi Yusa, commenting about sea slugs. “Some animals can autotomize legs, appendages, or tails, but no other animal can regenerate its entire body,” he said.

Canadian scientist Susan Anthony, who did not participate in the research, said that although the slugs studied were “only” 15 centimeters long before it was common to believe that they would still be too big to survive for some time without a heart or nutrients until the brain. But, according to her and Yusa, it is the extraordinary behavior of these species about photosynthesis that explains this phenomenon.

When these slugs eat a certain type of algae, they can photosynthesize their food from sunlight and oxygen, like plants, for about 10 days, explained Yusa. This is the probable survival tactic used by these organisms after beheading. They even change color to adopt a shade of green, and the fact that they reduce their size with the loss of a body part helps with tactics.

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