By Miah Stringer
Staff Writer
Although you’ve probably seen a lizard without its tail, or heard of a starfish losing a limb, have you ever heard of a slug decapitating itself? Within some species of the animal kingdom, it’s common for an organism to shed or lose a body part, such as a leg or a tail, and for it to regenerate. A sea slug, the elysia marginata, can shed off its whole body and regrow it. The headless bodies remain headless, but the head can grow its own body, including a new heart. The sea slug can dissolve the cells around its head and release it’s body; the body will regrow quickly in just about 3 weeks. Researchers suspect that the sea slugs get rid of their body in order to defend themselves against internal parasites. Some scientists believe that studying this strange and remarkable phenomenon could lead to advances in regenerative medicine in the future.