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Newt Leg Regeneration

Posted: May 18th, 2014, 4:02 pm
by soulsurvivor
I wanted to share some progression photos of a central newt that regrew an entire limb. The story starts back in January on an outing to a local park. I discovered a small central newt under a piece of bark. I took a few photos and put him back. He had all 4 limbs at that time.

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In March, I revisited the same park and checked the same piece of bark........the same newt was still there, but now missing the left front leg.

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Because of the missing limb (although I could see it was healed over), I took the newt home with me because of the fact that it was now quite a bit thinner, and the fact that it was under the same piece of bark made me feel like it wasn't doing well. I set him up in a fish bowl with some vegetation and fed him mosquito larvae, which he quite enjoyed and quickly fattened up on. After just a week I began to think the leg was starting to grow back. A nub started to form where it had once been smooth. Soon it was clear. (Ever see the "Here's Morty" episode of The Twilight Zone?)

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"Isaac" is now doing very well. The leg has basically fully regenerated, right down to the little toes. The last photo was just taken today.

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I hope this is interesting to someone. I find incredibly amazing. One of those things I learned in school but forgot about. It has been really cool to observe!

~Bree

Re: Newt Leg Regeneration

Posted: May 19th, 2014, 8:04 am
by BillMcGighan
The fact you chronicled this makes it very special.
Thanks. :thumb:

Re: Newt Leg Regeneration

Posted: May 19th, 2014, 7:02 pm
by mfb
very cool!

Re: Newt Leg Regeneration

Posted: May 22nd, 2014, 2:10 pm
by Daniel D Dye
That is too cool, Bree! Excellent work!

Re: Newt Leg Regeneration

Posted: May 29th, 2014, 11:01 pm
by mwentz
I just wanted to say that was a very cool photoset. Thanks for documenting it.

Re: Newt Leg Regeneration

Posted: June 2nd, 2014, 10:34 am
by Noah M
Yeah, this was awesome.

Re: Newt Leg Regeneration

Posted: June 19th, 2014, 12:02 pm
by TravisK
Now if you could just figure out how to tell the cells in humans to do the same thing you would be a Billionaire. 8-)