Besides sharks, perhaps the next scariest water-dwelling animal is the alligator. And there is quite a cause for concern when it comes to alligators, as they have quite powerful jaws, capable of crushing prey with 2,960 pounds of force. Yikes! Wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of a bite from one of these creatures. It also turns out that alligators are capable of climbing, so guess escaping them by climbing up a tree is probably no longer a survival option.
But it turns out that they possess even more cool qualities. According to a scientific study, baby alligators can regrow a severed tail up to 9 inches in length. This new information comes to us through a study published in the Scientific Reports journal. While scientists have previously observed limb regeneration in other reptiles such as iguanas or geckos, they’ve never seen something so large scale before. And this limb regeneration was observed by researchers at Arizona State University after they closely studied the tails from four euthanized American alligators.
Bob is a female alligator at Alligator Adventure in North Myrtle Beach, SC. Bob was born without a tail, which is the most common birth defect among American Alligators. They do not survive in the wild. from BeAmazed
Under x-ray and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) visualization, along with dissection, it was observed that these severed tails had shown evidence of regeneration. These replacement tails weren’t perfect, as they showed none of the signs of having the normal skeletal muscle that is present in regular alligator tails.
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But still, these tails are equally as important for the young alligators as they provide the creatures with the balance needed for swimming and other activities. And it’s also important these animals can quickly regenerate a missing tail since baby alligators are still small enough to be seen as pretty to some large birds, raccoons, and even other larger alligators. While scientists believe that it’s entirely possible for adult alligators to also possess this ability to regrow a missing tail, it still hasn’t been observed.
The post Can Alligators Can Regrow Their Tails? appeared first on The Animal Rescue Site News.
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