Yet nearly every phylum of animals contains at least a few species able to regenerate. Unfortunately, that reality does not include us. “Popularized in myths, science fiction, and even horror movies, regeneration of missing and damaged tissue is a common reality in the animal kingdom,” the authors write. Regeneration is, perhaps surprisingly, not unusual among animals. This could obviously help a lot of people, should it pan out. They are suggesting we may be able to regenerate parts of our brains, central nervous systems, and perhaps even bodies that have been damaged or lost. I should emphasize, however, that these scientists are not suggesting humans can regrow entire heads. Those shared genes means that understanding how they can regrow the entire upper half of their bodies and central nervous system from scratch in a matter of just two weeks could help unlock doors that could produce radically better treatments for people with brain and spinal cord injuries, dementia, paralysis, and amputations. As such, they use many of the same developmental genes we use to develop our brains to grow their heads, “brains”, and bodies. They grow a hollow neural tube along their backs, just like us. But why should we care? Because these invertebrates are just about as close to being a chordate – an animal like ourselves with a dorsal spinal cord - as you can get without being one. OK, this is a cool party trick, you may concede.
The images of regeneration go by a little quickly - try pausing and restarting the video to slow them down. Clearly, they need a better PR team).ĭon’t believe me? Here’s a time-lapse video that shows one accomplishing this show stopping feat in a mere two weeks:
That animal is the acorn worm (This is the third time I have written about these humble and apparently vastly under-appreciated animals in just the last few months. But there is an animal – a close relative - that can do not only that, it can regenerate the entire front half of its body after bisection: head, heart, central nervous system and all. Humans have noted with frustration our conspicuous inability to regenerate organs, limbs, and heads.
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