# Sea slug can chop off its own head and then regrow its body **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 8, 2021, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-slug-can-chop-off-its-own-head-and-then-regrow-its-body/937476 "2021-03-08T21:24:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-slug-can-chop-off-its-own-head-and-then-regrow-its-body/937476/21 "2021-03-09T14:37:29Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > The tail popped off and the gecko ran away, leaving my son holding the squirming tail. He screamed and dropped it, and lost any further interest in catching geckos. Evolution works. We have blue belly lizards here and they have the tail shedding capability as well. I’ve seen a few with regrown tails and they are not a nice as the original – shorter and less tapered. Perhaps I was seeing one not yet completely grown out, though. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-slug-can-chop-off-its-own-head-and-then-regrow-its-body/937476/22 "2021-03-09T14:41:30Z")
Usually regrown tails are shorter than the original. They lack bones and are just made up of tissue. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-slug-can-chop-off-its-own-head-and-then-regrow-its-body/937476/23 "2021-03-09T15:00:24Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > How do you know it doesn’t work on people? I mean, plenty of people have had their heads chopped off, but when has anyone ever tried chopping off their body? Ha!!! ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-slug-can-chop-off-its-own-head-and-then-regrow-its-body/937476/24 "2021-03-09T19:10:49Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > > [@robardin](#): > > > > And if they got the slugs to do this under controlled circumstances (not stated in the CNET article, but typically required to publish a paper), doesn’t that mean they should have some idea as to what triggered it? > > You can publish observational studies. You don’t need to do experiments. More evidence the decapitations were not spontaneous: they mention in the article that “the researchers found that only the younger slugs are capable of autonomy and regeneration. When older slugs had their heads removed, the heads survived for up to 10 days but they never started eating and did not start to regenerate before dying.” Older slugs could not do this trick, presumably would instinctively know not attempt it, and in any case the slugs “had their heads removed”. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2021, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-slug-can-chop-off-its-own-head-and-then-regrow-its-body/937476/25 "2021-03-10T16:56:52Z")
As an undergrad I worked in a neurophysiology lab recording electrical signals from the photo-receptors (“eyes”) of _Hermissenda crassicornis_ a marine nudibranch. It was amazing that we could remove the head, use a protease enzyme to clean away connective tissue, then work on the living, exposed brain _for hours_. > **[Hermissenda crassicornis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermissenda_crassicornis)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > Hermissenda crassicornis, also known as the opalescent nudibranch or thick-horned nudibranch, is a species of brightly coloured, sea slug or nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Facelinidae. > This nudibranch lives from Kodiak Island, Alaska, to Northern California. It is replaced by Hermissenda opalescens to the south of Northern California. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-slug-can-chop-off-its-own-head-and-then-regrow-its-body/937476/26 "2021-03-15T12:25:19Z")
> **[The Thing with Two Heads (1972) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069372/?ref_=kw_li_tt)** > > The Thing with Two Heads: Directed by Lee Frost. With Ray Milland, Roosevelt Grier, Don Marshall, Roger Perry. Doctors are forced to transplant the head of a dying, racist surgeon onto the body of a black death row inmate. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-slug-can-chop-off-its-own-head-and-then-regrow-its-body/937476.md?page=1)