Granted, the topic of this post is a wee bit odd, but hear me out. I’ve always loved slugs, don’t ask me why, and I think they’re rather interesting creatures. I can remember picking up slugs on the farm when I was younger and placing them on surfaces solely to observe them moving, and while that may be a testament to how weird I was as a child and remain to be as an adult, I stand behind my passion for slugs.
I stumbled across the topic of a slug that can cut off its head and grow a new body via an article from The Good News Network and had to share. Take a look.
“Since the days of BBC’s original Planet Earth, nature documentaries have brilliantly revealed the bizarreness of life. But, the behavior of a sea slug observed in a Japanese lab might be the one to steal the prize and leave you speechless.
“As remarkable as dancing birds of paradise, as strange as bioluminescent sea life, as startling as young goslings diving off a cliff—nothing will make your jaw drop like … a sea slug decapitating itself before cruising around as if nothing had happened.
“Researcher Sayaka Mitoh discovered that among her university’s extensive collection of sacoglossan sea slugs—the largest in the world—one of the elysia marginata had mysteriously had its head separated from its body.
“Oddly, its head was moving around on its own, seemingly without issue. Odder still, within hours it began eating—despite the fact that its kidneys, heart, sexual organs, and digestive equipment, were all absent.
“Then, oddest of all, within weeks it had regenerated an entirely new body,” the article explains.
If you’re interested in learning more about this pretty insane slug and its abilities, be sure to check out the paper named Extreme autotomy and whole-body regeneration in photosynthetic sea slugs.
ontheedgeofeverything 