The axolotl can regrow a leg, part of its heart and even its brain.

This Mexican salamander can replace lost limbs, spinal cord and pieces of organs, without scarring. Scientists study it to learn how healing might one day go further in humans.

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Forever young

Axolotls keep juvenile features like feathery gills all their lives.

In danger

In the wild they live only in the lake canals of Xochimilco in Mexico City, and are critically endangered.

Learn

1. How it regrows. Cells at the wound turn back into a flexible state, then rebuild the missing part in the right order.

Test yourself

Sources

• Axolotl

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