The evolution of many fascinating life history traits amongst animals remain poorly studied. One of these is regenerative ability. Some adult animals are capable of whole body regeneration while others are completely incapable. Given how useful regeneration is why don’t all animals regenerate? We are interested in understanding the mechanisms of regeneration and how and why they evolved. We use freshwater planarian flatworms and marine amphipods as our main model systems to do this. An example DPhil project would involve a combination of field sampling, experimental regenerative experiments in the lab, and molecular/genomic functional studies to test theories as to why animals evolve the ability to regenerate. Does regeneration evolve in response to partial predation, pathogen infection, mechanical stress or to facilitate new modes of asexual reproduction? Or are many different factors important in sequence?
