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The original title: "this creature that grows in its internal organs and in its legs will grow a new one even if its anus is cut off."

Write an article | Su Chengyu

At a depth of 3600 meters, there is a mysterious invertebrate that looks very unpleasant, because it is very much like a spider, but not a spider.

Photo Source: Wikipedia this is a kind of creature called sea spider, sea spider is precisely a kind of creature, is the general name of sea spider class, spiders belong to the class Araneae, the two do not have much genetic relationship, if there is anything in common, they all belong to arthropods.

As hard-shelled arthropods, it is generally believed that their ability to regenerate is very limited, at most is to regenerate the end of the limb. In my impression, those who have a strong ability to regenerate are soft "worms", such as flatworms, earthworms, newworms and starfish, rather than this hard-shelled one.

Photo Source: Wired then some scientists wanted to see if the regeneration ability of sea spiders was really limited, so they found some sea spiders from the bottom of the sea. See if it will grow back after cutting off their different organs.

You might think, doesn't this creature seem to have only legs? where can the torso grow organs?

Photo Source: the Internet is right, its internal organs grow into the legs, and its organs look like strips of intestines, swallowing food into the body through a long tubular mouth, then chemically converting it into nutrients, and then contracting. Transport nutrients to other parts of the spider.

Since all its organs are on its legs, just cut off its legs in segments. For example, the following sea spider, which has been cut off and regenerated, is marked with a white pointed head, with a total of three legs.

Photo Source: if you look at the literature carefully, you will find that the cut leg is white, because it was originally cut to the root, and the white part is the regenerated part, so the color is different.

If you reconstruct it with a CT scan, you will find that the new part of its shell does not grow well, but its tibia, the front hook, and even the intestines marked in pink have grown.

Photo Source: the literature not only cut off its intestines, but also cut off its anus. The sea spider below has not only cut off all its legs, but also cut off its anus (black tip).

Picture source: it didn't take long for the literature to get better.

Source: if you can't see the document clearly, the scientist also made a scan diagram so that you can see where its anus is. The part of the tail that is a little orange is its regenerated anus.

Photo Source: there is no doubt about the ability of literature regeneration if they can have a chance to survive again and expand their race after being seriously injured. Although there is little meat value and no undersea animals that hunt it, there is something parasitic on them.

Sea spiders have no lungs or gills and rely on exoskeletons to inhale oxygen. If there is something on the exoskeleton, it may hinder its breathing.

For example, a creature with a barnacle will pull on it as a hitchhiker. The sea spider in the picture below has several barnacles, which makes it walk very hard.

Photo Source: Jlane and these annoying bumps, in addition to being heavy, also increase the risk that sea spiders will be swept away by strong currents.

In addition to barnacles, surface-covered organisms such as algae and external anal animals (also known as bryozoans) will also pull on it, but because the coverage rate is not very high, it does not cause very strong respiratory problems.

It seems that survival at the bottom of the sea, even if it seems useless, is still risky, and it is not too much to have a little regenerative ability.

Reference:

Https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2217272120

This article is from the official Wechat account: bring Science Home (ID:steamforkids), author: everything.

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