The Secret of Regeneration in... Alligators

Why can amphibians, fish and even some reptiles regenerate limbs, while birds and mammals can’t? Researchers think they might have found a clue on the tip of the alligator’s tail.

Hosted by: Hank Green

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[invisiblepants]

The best thing to do when dismembered is load a previous save.

[justacat]

I misread the title as "The secret Refrigeration of Alligators"

[jackielinde]

Love the "Surprised Owl" picture at 2:19. It's like he's saying Gaters and Birds are cousins?"

[Kikilang]

When I was younger, I cut the tip of my finger off. No bone, but a bit of nail. The doctor said, "If you let it heal, the tip might grow back." I was careful not to use my finger. I was so careful, I became right handed. My hand writing suck now, but my finger tip did grow back.

[theinternaut]

I love how the scishow episodes are starting to go with your scishow tangents episodes, and somtimes even your micro cosmos episodes!!! Love you Hank green.

[guifdcanalli]

The warm blood theory makes a lot of sense, both birds and mammals evolved separately warm blood and both groups lost their regeneration as well, maybe the high temperature and quick metabolism just doesnt work properly with regeneration process, that usually is slow
Also croc, anphibians and fish live in water most of the time, so an open wound, or semi open wound, could be maintained for a lot of time unlike land animals where thicker tissues are needed to mitigate blood loss and dryness, perhaps these tissues hamper or cease the regenerative process at the tip of the limbs

[jadegriffonadvco.]

Humans can regenerate. It is limited to the finger tips past the last joint. So only around the nail bed. The wound must be keep open for it to happen. It also is more common in children.

[mikerphone.]

This is JUST THE TIP of research done on regeneration.

[QaRajhCreations]

Imagine the b-movie horror-shows to come out of Florida after this... Classics such as
"Zombie Gator Bit My Wife"
"Bayou of the Dead"
And who could forget
"There was a flooding on hole 16, so now it doesn't just have a water hazard, it has something more. Bring your caddy, yes the cripple, giving you time to escape."

[Kabup]

It would be nice to be able to regrow my bank account.

[adchoalulle]

Birds do regenerate, actually. The hair cells in their inner ears. That's not so easily seen from outside, to be fair, but when I researched hearing development in chicken for my bachelor's thesis, the publications on that topic reached back to 1990s...? More than 20 years anyway.

[goedadit]

What a nice thumbnail, that's one of gators cutest smile I see.

[relomyy]

scishow: not lizards but birds
me: wait a minute 🙃🙃

[ABadassDragon]

Dont crocs also have insanely good immune system? There was a croc that got a good chunk of his upper snout bit off and it survived for a long time with seamingly little to no impact on his ability to hunt

[Infernoraptor]

To be clear, are tails the same as limbs from a developmental perspective? They're part of the backbone rather than the peripheral, so I'm curious

[Master_Therion]

See you later alligator tail,
In a while -crocodile- it will grow back.

[TOTADA]

Ive heard that some human infants who have lost a severed fingertip can regenerate it.

[alguemalguem]

When I was scrolling through my subscriptions and saw this video, for one moment I read the title as "The Secret of Refrigeration in Alligators", and very much did a double take.

[fredericktan]

Because Alligators need their tails to swim, a tailless Alligator would be bad

[uuugberns]

I enjoy the show once again.Thank you! Will be nice to know where you get your shirts.