Regeneration Biology - SCI-ART LAB2024-03-28T10:12:08Zhttps://kkartlab.in/forum/topics/regeneration-biology?groupUrl=some-science&feed=yes&xn_auth=no18
It Turns Out Alligators Ca…tag:kkartlab.in,2020-11-23:2816864:Comment:1878492020-11-23T05:27:00.214ZDr. Krishna Kumari Challahttps://kkartlab.in/profile/DrKrishnaKumariChalla
<p>18</p>
<h1>It Turns Out Alligators Can Regrow Their Tails Too</h1>
<p>Small reptiles such as geckos and skinks are well known for this remarkable ability to sacrifice and then rapidly regrow their tails. Now, to scientists' surprise, it turns out that much larger alligators can regrow theirs too. But only while they're young.</p>
<p>Juvenile American alligators (<i>Alligator mississippiensis</i>) can regrow up to 18 percent of their total body length back. This is about 23 cm or 9 inches of…</p>
<p>18</p>
<h1>It Turns Out Alligators Can Regrow Their Tails Too</h1>
<p>Small reptiles such as geckos and skinks are well known for this remarkable ability to sacrifice and then rapidly regrow their tails. Now, to scientists' surprise, it turns out that much larger alligators can regrow theirs too. But only while they're young.</p>
<p>Juvenile American alligators (<i>Alligator mississippiensis</i>) can regrow up to 18 percent of their total body length back. This is about 23 cm or 9 inches of length.</p>
<p>What's really cool is this regrowth appears to occur via a mechanism we've not seen before.</p>
<p>By imaging and dissecting the tail regrowth, researchers found alligators do this quite differently from the other animals we know that can regenerate their appendages.</p>
<p>As far as regrowing body parts goes, amphibious axolotls are the champions of regeneration amongst land animals with internal skeletons.</p>
<p>If injured, they can reform a segmented skeleton, complete with muscles that differ along their height - distinguishing top from bottom.</p>
<p>Regrown lizard tails do not have a segmented skeleton, but lizards do reform muscles - although they look uniformly the same, with no variation in topside structure compared to the bottom.</p>
<p>This may be because regenerating appendages is physiologically expensive, and in smaller lizards has been shown to reduce overall growth rate.</p>
<p>Alligators, it seems, don't even bother re-growing muscles at all. Clearly there is a high cost to producing new muscle.</p>
<p>The research team thinks that even a muscle-less extra bit of tail must give these dangerous predators an edge in their murkily watered homes.</p>
<p>Unlike lizards, they can't self-amputate - their tail loss usually results from trauma inflicted by territorial aggression, or cannibalism from larger individuals.</p>
<p>Damage from human interactions, like motor blade damage have also been recorded.</p>
<p>Regrown tails from juvenile American alligators exhibit features of both regeneration and wound repair.</p>
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<p><span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-77052-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-77052-8</a></span></p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/it-s-not-just-little-lizards-young-alligators-can-regrow-their-tails-too" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.sciencealert.com/it-s-not-just-little-lizards-young-all...</a></p>