These Slugs Cut Off Their Own Heads When They Want a New Body
Image: Sayaka Mitoh
Elysia cf.
marginata and
Elysia atroviridis aren’t your average gastropods. First off, they’re members of sacoglossa, a clade of slugs known for taking the algae from marine plants and integrating the chloroplasts from that algae into their own cells, allowing them to get energy from sunlight. These two slug species are also capable of extreme regeneration; they can sever their heads and grow entirely new bodies.
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New research published today in Current Biology describes this incredible feat of autotomy, or self-amputation. (It’s worth mentioning that the bodies do not generate new heads.) The discovery was made in Yoichi Yusa’s lab at Nara Women’s University in Japan, which cultures sea slugs from eggs to adulthood across generations to better understand these slimy creatures.