from the tall-tail?-Heads-I-win,-tails-you-lose? dept.
Alligators can regrow their tails, surprising scientists:
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.
Juvenile American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) can regrow up to 18 percent of their total body length back. This is about 23 cm or 9 inches of length.
What's really cool is this regrowth appears to occur via a mechanism we've not seen before.
By imaging and dissecting the tail regrowth, researchers from Arizona State University (ASU) found alligators do this quite differently from the other animals we know that can regenerate their appendages.
[...] As far as regrowing body parts goes, amphibious axolotls are the champions of regeneration amongst land animals with internal skeletons.
If injured, they can reform a segmented skeleton, complete with muscles that differ along their height - distinguishing top from bottom.
[...] Alligators, it seems, don't even bother re-growing muscles at all.
"Clearly there is a high cost to producing new muscle," said ASU animal physiologist Jeanne Wilson-Rawls.
Journal References:
1.) James I. Barr, Catherine A. Boisvert, Ruchira Somaweera, et al. Re-regeneration to reduce negative effects associated with tail loss in lizards [open], Scientific Reports (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-55231-6)
2.) Cindy Xu, Joanna Palade, Rebecca E. Fisher, et al. Anatomical and histological analyses reveal that tail repair is coupled with regrowth in wild-caught, juvenile American alligators ( Alligator mississippiensis ) [open], Scientific Reports (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-77052-8)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 01 2020, @08:59AM
That what he's about to fuck you with for touching his tail.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 01 2020, @12:16PM (4 children)
The TFA says that further research will be challenging because alligators are a threatened species. In fact alligators were removed from the list of endangered species in 1987. The article also speculated that "regenerating appendages is physiologically expensive", without offering any explanation as to why it would be more so than growing any other part of the body.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday December 01 2020, @06:30PM (1 child)
If alligators feel threatened, then humans could provide them with a nice "safe space". A wonderful place where they could live out their lives in piece having their tail harvested and regrown repeatedly during an artificially extended lifespan of drugs, anti bio-tics, and hormones.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 01 2020, @07:45PM
Should that be "live out their lives in two pieces ..."? :-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 01 2020, @07:20PM
I don't understand. I'd assume that growing any other part of the body is also physiologically expensive. As an example, look at how much food children eat, especially during growth spurts... and then consider how much smaller they are than adults so percentage-wise it's much more.
So even if it is "only" as expensive as growing any other part of the body, it seems reasonable to consider it "physiologically expensive."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2020, @06:27AM
Threatened and endangered are different categories.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday December 01 2020, @03:48PM (11 children)
An alligator rancher could repeatedly harvest the regrown tails to provide a fantastical renewable sustainable source of meat that could be used in all those veggie burgers.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2, Touché) by nostyle on Tuesday December 01 2020, @04:16PM (2 children)
There's probably more money to be made in boots and handbags (sustainably).
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday December 01 2020, @09:01PM (1 child)
Starving people would trade a bag of gold for a loaf of bread.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1) by nostyle on Tuesday December 01 2020, @10:06PM
Give a man a loaf, and he will eat for a day.
Teach a man to loaf, and he will gold-brick forever.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday December 01 2020, @04:23PM (2 children)
TFA and TSA suggests that the regrown tail has little if any meat in it. If you're interested in how much meat you get out of an original tail, Youtube has videos of them being butchered. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLaXcxE5spI [youtube.com] A 10 1/2 foot gator yields about 65 pounds of meat it seems, maybe ten pounds coming from the tail.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 01 2020, @04:55PM
How many pounds of meat off the new tail? How many times can it re-grow? Come on, we need answers not more of your bullshit.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Tuesday December 01 2020, @06:23PM
If that were true, then it would be a selling point to get vegans to buy it. We would need legislation to qualify some threshold of meat in a product in order to qualify as "contains meat" or "is meat". That threshold would need to be set sufficiently high that all existing fist food burgers qualify as having meat in them.
That's enough meat to make at least a thousand quarter pounders.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Tuesday December 01 2020, @05:46PM (1 child)
Does that mean alligators are a vegetable?
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday December 01 2020, @06:25PM
It means that product labeling, federal labeling guidelines, and marketing are what really truly matters!
When you order a burger, they ask if you want "cheese" not if you want "gelatinous cheese-like substance" on it.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Tuesday December 01 2020, @07:21PM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday December 01 2020, @11:16PM (1 child)
I've only had it heavily spiced as sausage so it's difficult to tell what it tastes like. Frog legs are often touted as "tasting like chicken," but when I had them at a place on Lake Pontchartrain in a lemon and butter sauce they were quite fishy.
Maybe there's a reason why lizards aren't generally kept for meat.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Wednesday December 02 2020, @02:19PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 01 2020, @04:29PM (2 children)
Ever seen a winged human regrow its head?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday December 01 2020, @06:26PM
So far, I have not seen any instances of this.
Maybe I'm taking the wrong drugs.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2020, @03:02PM
yes, they're called asians. insectoids.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday December 01 2020, @11:18PM
Does this mean they can regrow my tail? If we're to be ruled by lizard people I'd rather pass for one of the masters.
Washington DC delenda est.