regrowth

[Nick Longrich <nrlongri@midway.uchicago.edu>]

        Someone ( bio PhD so I'd guess they probably are correct) once told
me that a kid can regrow the last phalanx of the pinkie up to about age 2
or 3 or something. Kinda cool. It would be interesting to map some of these
things, such as the ability to regenerate various appendages, onto a
cladogram and see what you come up with. Generally I think the ability to
regenerate is found in relatively less morphologically
specialized/differentiated things (e.g. there are annelid worms that
reproduce asexually by splitting in pieces, planaria and starfish and
plants of course, octopi and vertebrates and insects don't) but I wouldn't
be surprised if tail regeneration was something that was specialized in
lizards- beyond the break-lines I mean. But again I guess you'd have to map
it onto a cladogram and see.
        -N