In an Unexpected Twist It Turns Out Alligators Can Regrow Their Tails Too - ScienceAlert
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.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.If injured, they can reform a segmented skeleton, complete with muscles that differ along their height - distinguishing top from bottom. .Regrown lizard tails do not have a segmented skeleton, but lizards do reform muscles - although they look uniformly the same, with no variation in topside structure compared to the bottom.The anatomical difference between original and regenerated tail."Regrown tails from juvenile American alligators exhibit features of both regeneration and wound repair." .The team notes so far they've only been able to observe the end product of tail regenerations in alligators