Survive in space, immune to cancer, don’t need water to live, freeze and resurrect for months, regenerate whole body from tail, be immune to the passage of time, rejuvenate and respawn, change gender… these are some of the ‘superpowers’ some species have animals. Many of these properties have been studied by scientists for decades to apply them to humans. The secrets of eternal youth and eternal life can be found in these ten of the world’s most astonishing and astonishing animals.
1. Tardigrade
Also called water bear, survives even in space and extremely high radiation levels, and withstands temperatures between –200ºC and 148.9ºC.. It’s even possible that it lives on the Moon: several specimens were traveling on an Israeli space probe that crashed into the satellite in 2019. Less than a millimeter in length, this animal can come back to life decades after being dehydrated. When dry, he retracts his head and all eight legs, crumples up like a ball, expels almost all of the water in his body, slows his metabolism to 0.01%, and enters a state of suspended animation like death.
2. Ratopine shaved
This virtually insensitive to pain and immune to cancer. It can live up to 30 years (ten times longer in size than rodents) and never drinks water. Each colony has its own ‘dialect’. And mice reared in a new colony, unlike the one in which they were born, learn the new dialect. The queen – they have a lot in common with insects – 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. Everyone knows his rank and the duties he has to do. But 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 fully transform its state to sexual immaturity. If a specimen of this species is seriously injured, becomes ill, feels threatened, or is very hungry, it will polyp again and be reborn. It has the ability to “rebuild” its cells to their earliest stages in just three days. And from the new polyp state it develops and multiplies again. Scientists have succeeded in showing that the genetically reborn subject is the same as 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 return, he has two lungs with no bronchi. When the ponds and ponds in which it lives dry up, it makes a hole 30 to 50 centimeters deep in the mud, folds up on itself, secretes a thick mucus that protects it from dehydration, and seals the entrance with clay. Small holes to allow ventilation. It can survive for months this way, minimizing its metabolism.
5. Weta of the Mountains
This insect freezes for months and then ‘resurrects’. Can withstand repeated freeze-thaw cycles without adverse effects secondary. He puts up with 80% of his body being in this state. It does this to survive large changes in temperature, thanks to a protein that prevents its blood from crystallizing. In winter it enters cryptobiosis (suspension of metabolic processes) and reaches a state of animated suspension similar to death. In fact, it plays dead (elongated legs, exposed claws, and open jaw) to avoid being eaten by predators during the cryogenization stage.
6. Axolotl
This is a water salamander able to regenerate his body and stay young all his life. It can regenerate its tail, limbs, spinal cord, part of its brain, heart, lower jaw and other organs. Researchers continue to explore how it does this to apply it to humans. Unlike other salamanders that undergo metamorphosis, the axolotl never exceeds the larval stage: it retains its tadpole-shaped dorsal fin, hairy external gills, and webbed feet. Although they retain 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 partner 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, without moving from the anemones, which provide them with shelter and maintain a symbiotic relationship. Each family consists of two or more individuals with a social hierarchy based on size. Only the two largest are mature and monogamous, with the female dominant.
8. Giant Tortoise
Turtles don’t actually die of old age. Without disease, predators, and humans, they could live forever. However, these three factors cause the average lifespan to be around 80 years. “Jonathan”, a giant tortoise from Seychelles living on Saint Helena Island, is 190 years old. Turtles’ longevity, slow metabolism, calm temperament, the ability to go without eating or drinking for monthsthe durable shell and the fact that its organs do not age over time: the lung or kidney of a century-old turtle is indistinguishable from that of a teenager.
9. Plane worm
It can regenerate organs lost after a predator attack or after mating. Although it splits into two parts, both will develop and two different planaria will emerge from them.. It also has no respiratory or circulatory system, no eyes (it has two small eye spots it uses as photoreceptors for seeing), and is a hermaphrodite. Moreover: its mouth is in the middle of the stomach and can reproduce both sexually and asexually. During asexual reproduction, the tail is separated from the rest of the body and the lost parts are replaced. The other part recovers its tail in a few days.
10. Kangaroo Rat
It is night and she barely loses fluid as her skin is waterproof, so does not need outside water to survive. In fact, it does this “factory” with its own breath. By exchanging moist outlet and inlet air, the temperature in the larynx drops and the chemically produced water in the colder areas of the nose condenses into droplets that are assimilated by the body. It also draws fluid from seeds and plants, which it stores in sweat glands on its feet. On the outside of his cheeks are bags where he stores the seeds he feeds when he can’t find food.
Other unique species
There are many more amazing animals that can be added to this list. for example, he seahorses, because it is men who conceive and give birth.: Between 10 and 25 days, they carry about 2,000 (about 2,000 at a time) babies in their stomachs and eventually give birth. or an ant Cataglyphis bicolorIt can withstand temperatures above 60ºC for hunting in the Sahara.
It can also be included red Flat Bark Beetle, producing antifreeze proteins to withstand the cold, or tree froga, ability to withstand temperatures down to –18ºC by protecting 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 up to 1000 times their weight; 4,000 toothed sharks; and a handful of species that can recognize themselves in the mirror; that is, with self-awareness.