Scientists have discovered worms capable of recovering a new head after amputation – Discovery – Science

Regeneration of amputated body parts is rare, but natural. It is capable, for example, of salamander, certain species of spiders, starfish and some species of marine worms. Until now, the ability of regeneration has been considered an antiquity that some species could not lose during the course of evolution.

The new study, published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, has shown that the ability to recover can not only be lost, but also acquired over time. By studying 35 species of marine worms, the researchers discovered that four of them had recently been able to regenerate the head with all the brains.

"This means that when comparing different groups of animals, we can not badume that the similarities in their ability to regenerate are rare and indicate an old kinship. We need to pay more attention to the future, "commented one of the authors of the study, Alexander Belly, about the discovery.

All animals have some degree of recovery ability. Even people are able to regenerate damaged skin through the wound. The animal species that appeared a long time ago, such as sponges, hydrides and kennoforms, are often able to pbad from small amputated parts of their body to an individual in their own right. However, when animals become more evolutionarily complex organisms, this ability has disappeared or is less spectacular.

Research on regeneration capacity has so far been based on the species of animals that have lost them, this ability having been created in the distant past to explore the causes.

The new study presents clearer documentation of how animals recover. It can also better explain what is needed to create an evolutionary trait.

As part of this study, scientists collected worms on the coasts of the United States, Argentina, Spain and New Zealand in 2012 and 2014 and conducted experiments. regeneration with 22 species of worms. At the same time, information on 13 other species of marine worms collected in previous studies was obtained.

All worm species were able to regenerate completely, but only eight species were able to grow a new head and restore the entire body from the back. Four of these worms have been discovered in the new study and others in previous studies.

The scientists' surprise was that this ability was not ancient, but stemmed from a relatively recent path of evolution.