Starfish are able to squeeze foreign bodies along the length of their body cavities and out through their arm tips within a few days – which helps explains how these animals are able to heal so quickly.
This was discovered as two biology students - Frederik Ekholm Gaardsted Christensen and Trine Bottos Olsen – Tried to tag starfish (Asterias Rubens) in order to identify so researchers could identify and study the starfish.
“Many organisms are capable of removing some foreign objects from their body. Think of a splinter that can be pushed out of a finger by itself. However, when the foreign object is lodged deep inside the organism, like a bullet between the internal organs, most organisms have no way to get rid of it without surgery…
Previous research has documented that starfish are able to regenerate whole limbs and organs, but this trick of ejecting deeply embeded foreign bodies has never before been demonstrated in any organism."- Reference: Olsen, T. B., Christensen, F. E. G., Lundgreen, K., Dunn, P. H., & Levitis, D. A. (2015). Coelomic Transport and Clearance of Durable Foreign Bodies by Starfish (Asterias rubens). The Biological Bulletin, 228(2), 156-162.
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