Summary: <p>This week we’re going to learn about animals that can regenerate parts of their body. What animals can do it, how does it work, and can humans figure out how to make it work for us too?</p> <p>Thanks to Maxwell of the awesome <a href="http://relic.blubrry.net/">Relic: The Lost Treasure</a> podcast for suggesting this week’s topic!</p> <p>The planarian, not exciting to look at but you can get a lot of them easily:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-484" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/planarian-300x164.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="164"></p> <p>A starfish leg growing a new starfish, or possibly a slightly gross magic wand. Ping! You’ve been turned into a magical starfish:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-485" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/linckia-300x206.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="206"></p> <p>The adorable axolotl:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-486" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/axolotl-300x300.png" alt="" width="300" height="300"></p> <p>The almost as adorable African spiny mouse:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-487" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/shedding-mouse1-300x227.png" alt="" width="300" height="227"></p> <p>A hydra. Not really very adorable except possibly to other hydras but kind of pretty:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-488" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/hydra-300x214.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="214"></p> <p><strong>Show transcript:</strong></p> <p>Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.</p> <p>This week’s episode was going to be about lungfish, but I had to postpone it because I ran across some conflicting information about a mystery lungfish, which required me to order a book that probably won’t arrive for a week or two. So when I tweeted about needing a new topic quick, Maxwell of the Relic: The Lost Treasure podcast suggested animals that can regenerate parts of their bodies.</p> <p>We’ve touched on regenerative abilities before in one or two episodes. Some lizards can drop their tail if threatened, which then regrows later—but a lizard can only do that once. The fish-scaled gecko from episode 20 can lose its scales and regenerate them repeatedly. But other animals can regenerate not just bits and pieces, but entire organs and even their brains. The sea lamprey can even regenerate spinal cord cells. You better believe researchers are trying to figure out how regeneration works and if it can be adapted for human application.</p> <p>A lot of worms can regenerate lost pi</p>
