Starfish Can Regenerate Entire Bodies

For centuries, oyster fishermen viewed starfish as pests that destroyed their harvest. In an attempt to eradicate them, they would dredge them up, chop them in half, and toss the pieces back into the water. To their dismay, this only seemed to make the problem worse. They were inadvertently witnessing one of the animal kingdom's most incredible survival strategies in action. Instead of killing the starfish, they were often creating two where there had been one, as many species can regrow their entire body from a single arm.

This remarkable feat is not magic, but a marvel of biology centered on the starfish's central disc. This area houses the majority of the animal's vital organs and contains special stem-like cells. When a limb is severed with a piece of this disc attached, these undifferentiated cells can divide and transform into any part of the animal needed, from new tube feet to nerve tissue. This complex and energy-intensive rebuilding process is a form of asexual reproduction, and it can take a full year for a complete new body to form from the original piece.

While amazing, this regenerative power has a dark side for marine ecosystems. The notorious crown-of-thorns starfish, a voracious predator of coral (Deals), exhibits an even more extreme version of this ability. It can regenerate from mere fragments of its body, making population control efforts by marine biologists incredibly difficult. This "superpower" allows the destructive starfish to persist and spread, posing a significant threat to the survival of the world's fragile coral reefs.