Survive in space, be immune to cancer, don’t need water to live, freeze and resurrect for months, regenerate your entire body from the tail, be immune to the passage of time, rejuvenate and respawn, transgender… These are some of the ‘superpowers’ that some species have. animals. Many of these properties have been studied by scientists for decades to apply to humans. The secrets of eternal youth and eternal life can be found in these ten most amazing and surprising animals in the world.
1. tardigrade
Also called water bear, survives in space and even at very high radiation levels and withstands temperatures between -200ºC and 148.9ºC. It’s even possible that it lives on the Moon: A few examples were traveling on an Israeli space probe that crashed into the satellite in 2019. Less than a millimeter long, this animal can come back to life decades after being dehydrated. When dry, he retracts his head and all eight legs, forms a ball, expels almost all the water from his body, slows his metabolism by up to 0.01%, and enters a death-like state of suspended animation.
2. Shaved mouse
dir-dir virtually insensitive to pain and immune to cancer. It can live up to 30 years – ten times longer than rodents its own size – and never drink water. Each colony has its own ‘dialect’. And mice bred in a new colony learn the new dialect differently than when they were born. Having much in common with insects, the queen is responsible for the reproduction of the colony and maintains the dialect. They work in harmony within their colonies, living in close-knit and highly cooperative communities. Each of them knows his rank and the duties he must fulfill. However, they are very aggressive towards ‘alien’ mice.
3. Immortal jellyfish
biologically can live forever in the absence of predators or disease. It is the only known animal that can completely reverse its condition until it is sexually immature. If a specimen of this species is seriously injured, becomes ill, feels threatened, or becomes very hungry, it will grow back into a polyp and be reborn. It has the ability to ‘rebuild’ its cells and return them to their initial stages in just three days. And it develops and multiplies again from the new polyp state. Scientists have succeeded in showing that the reborn subject is genetically identical to the subject from which it came.
4. African lungfish
It is a true living fossil, as it represents an evolutionary step between fish and amphibians. Can survive at very low oxygen levels, so the branch system is very small. In turn, it has two lungs without bronchi. When the ponds and lakes in which it lives dry up, it makes a hole 30 to 50 centimeters deep in the mud, curls up on itself, secretes a thick mucus that protects it from dehydration, and seals the entrance with clay. 3 small holes to allow ventilation. It can survive for months this way, reducing its metabolism to a minimum.
5. Weta of the Mountains
This insect freezes for months and then ‘resurrects’. Can handle repeated freeze-thaw cycles with no side effects secondary. To go into this state, hold 80% of your body. It does this to survive large temperature changes, thanks to a protein that prevents its blood from crystallizing. In winter, it enters cryptobiosis (suspension of metabolic processes) and reaches a state of mobile suspension similar to death. In fact, in its cryogenic stage, it pretends to be dead (legs extended, claws open and jaws open) to avoid being eaten by predators.
6. Axolotl
This aquatic salamander to renew your body and stay young all your life. It can regenerate its tail, limbs, spinal cord, part of its brain, heart, lower jaw and other organs. Researchers are still investigating how it does this to apply in humans. Unlike other metamorphosing salamanders, the axolotl never gets past the larval stage: it retains its tadpole-shaped dorsal fin, hairy external gills, and webbed feet. Although they protect their gills, adult axolotls also have functional lungs and can breathe through their skin.
7. Clownfish
Although all clownfish are born male, they are hermaphrodites and some become female. When an alpha female dies, her mate undergoes neurological changes that cause her testicles to develop into ovaries. This fact contributes to the survival of the species, thanks to the formation of a new breeding pair, with which they maintain a symbiotic relationship, which, without leaving their anemones, provides shelter. Each family consists of two or more people with a social hierarchy based on size. Only the two largest are mature and monogamous, with the dominant female.
8. Giant Tortoise
Turtles don’t actually die of old age. Without diseases, predators, and humans, they could live forever. However, these three factors cause the average lifespan to be around 80 years. Seychelles giant tortoise “Jonathan” living on Saint Helena Island is 190 years old. The longevity of turtles is due to their slow metabolism, calm temperament, ability to go for months without eating or drinkingthe resistant shell and the fact that its organs do not age over time: the lung or kidney of a hundred-year-old turtle is indistinguishable from that of an adolescent.
9. Planarian worm
It can regenerate organs lost after a predator attack or after mating. Even if it splits into two parts, the two will develop and two different planarias will emerge from them.. It also lacks a respiratory or circulatory system, has no eyes (it has two small eye spots it uses as photoreceptors for vision), and is hermaphrodite. Moreover: its mouth is in the middle of the stomach and it can reproduce both sexually and asexually. During asexual reproduction, the tail is separated from the rest of the body and the lost parts are reproduced. The other part recovers its tail in a few days.
10. Kangaroo rat
It is nocturnal and almost never loses liquids because its skin is waterproof. does not need outside water to survive. In fact, he ‘produces’ it with his own breath. By changing the moist outlet and inlet air, the temperature in the larynx drops and the chemically produced water in the colder parts of the nose condenses into droplets to be assimilated by the body. It also gets fluid from the seeds and plants it stores in the sweat glands in its feet. On the outside of his cheeks are some bags where he hides the seeds he feeds on when he can’t find food.
Other unique species
There are many more wonderful animals that can be added to this list. for example, he Seahorse, because it is the male that conceives and gives birth.: Between 10 and 25 days, they carry around 2,000 (about 2,000 at a time) babies in their stomachs and eventually give birth. or ant Kataglyph bicolorIt has the ability to withstand temperatures above 60ºC in the Sahara to hunt.
It can also be included red Flat Bark Beetle, producing antifreeze proteins to withstand the cold, or wood froga, able to withstand temperatures down to -18ºC by protecting their cells with glucose (cryoprotection). There are also about 500 species of fish that can change sex; two centuries-old whales; fish with amorphous gelatinous masses; insects that can move their weight up to 1000 times their own weight; 4,000 toothed sharks; and a handful of species that can recognize themselves in the mirror; namely with self-awareness.