Regeneration is a process that regrows and repairs parts of the body that are lost or injured. This process mostly occurs in certain types of animals like worms, starfish and sea cucumbers, but regeneration can occur in every species. The type of regeneration differs, as planaria can regenerate their entire body, as humans can only regenerate cells and certain body organs, such as the liver (Chen et al. 1991).
Regeneration is important to the animal because it is involved in functionality, and without these limbs and structures the animal would have “locomotor, foraging, reproductive, and/or metabolic disadvantages” (Maginnis, 2006, p. 289). If an animal was to lose an arm and not be able to regrow it, the animal would lack function and eventually die off, this process allows them to adapt and survive within their environment.
Like almost every other bodily system or process, the process can be manipulated and changed by different factors. Regeneration can be affected by both internal and external factors, such as nerves within the animal, (Fansa and Keilhoff, 2003) and environmental factors. Environmental factors include: temperature, salinity, pH and many other factors.
Dugesia tigrina are flatworm planaria, that live in freshwater lakes, …show more content…
It is important to feed the planaria, since they need energy, or food, in order to regenerate. After feeding, the 12 planaria were separated into three groups of four, one for each variable. Before manipulating the planaria, the original measurements of their length was recorded, by placing them on graph paper. Once divided into groups, a group member cut the tails off the planaria with a scalpel. We were careful with cutting, as to make sure not to cut off the stomach of the planaria, or else the regeneration would not occur since they would not be able to eat or survive because the food they just ate would no longer be