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Ever since a PhD student introduced me to the idea, stolonization has been haunting my waking hours. Now it can haunt yours too: some annelid worms develop a gamete-filled structure (stolon), which detaches and swims to find a mate. Some stolons have eyes, antennae, and nervous system 馃く

The image shows female (left) and male (right) stolons which detach from their seafloor-dwelling 'parent' organism and swim to seek each other out.

#science #nature #worms

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The original individual can then just regenerate the segments it lost then create a new stolon. Rinse and repeat.

Image source, and cool research on the genetics of this:

Nakamura, M. et al. 2023. Morphological, histological and gene-expression analyses on stolonization in the Japanese Green Syllid, Megasyllis nipponica (Annelida, Syllidae). Scientific reports, 13(1), p.19419.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-46358-8