Biological Miracle – Wood Frog

Wood frogs only live 3-5 years, so they probably only go through a max of 5 of these cycles. I wonder how much cellular damage they accumulate during these cycles that they can tolerate due to short lifespans. They also have ~10,000x less neurons than a mammal.

Even if you had the biochemistry that was able to do this, how many cycles could a higher life form tolerate this, assuming it would even work? Complex life seems to sacrifice some resiliency, such as the ability to regrow limbs. Amphibians already seem to be particularly adept at regeneration.

"frogs don’t freeze once and stay frozen. Instead, they spend a week or two freezing at night and thawing during the day until the temperatures drop permanently below freezing"

https://shakerlakes.org/frozen-frogs/

like maple syrup...

Or water… or anything else with a freezing point that the ambient temperature crosses at night

I don't understand why we're not allowed to regrow limbs. What did that make room for in our DNA?

Some animals regenerate, some form scar tissue. It's thought that scar tissue is a cheaper and faster mechanism than regrowing limbs and has thus been selected in many cases.

The only animal that really does it properly is the salamander and I guess our family trees diverged before they figured that out?

Still scientists are working on it - they've done frogs https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/can-humans-regr...

Oh sorry, I more meant specific to the times when you harvest maple syrup.

If you didn't know, you need to wait to harvest maple syrup until you have a series of days when the daytime temperature is above freezing and the nighttime temperature is below freezing. This causes the maple sap to flow and allows it to collect in the bucket.

https://botanistinthekitchen.blog/2013/03/18/maple-syrup-mec...

Can't just be the salamander. I saw an iguana regrowing its tale just last week. Geckos too. Pretty sure starfish as well.

If an iguana loses its tail, it doesn't just bleed until the new tail starts forming, right? Doesn't it seal up and then regrow?

> The only animal that really does it properly is the salamander

Vertebrates are animals, but not all animals are vertebrates.

A lot of invertebrates can regrow lost organs or even heads. Insects lose it for the luxury of having wings, but other arthropods can regrow lost limbs if they live for enough moults. Planarians can regenerate everything.

Yeah it does form a clot and a thin skin layer, but it remains somewhat like a wound much longer and is easier to hurt again than scar tissue covers up a wound quite quickly.

That’s pretty cool. Is there anything else that requires a freeze-thaw cycle to harvest?

I'm not actually sure. Maple syrup is all I'm aware of.