Science is Fun Fridays!
Researcher Sakaya Mitoh at Nara Women's University in Japan was documenting the development stages of sea slugs, when she noticed one was decapitated, done to itself!
And the head was still moving around!
She expected the head to eventually die, detached from vital organs as it was, but it grew a new body instead!
They theorize that the slug uses photosynthesis to stay alive in this stage, an ability it incorporates into its tissue by eating algae.
Older slugs don't always make it though, while younger slug heads will start eating within a few hours. A new heart grows by week one, and in three weeks, regeneration is complete.
Why though?
It's possibly a reaction to parasites - just getting rid of the whole body once infected.
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