Zombies of the Sea: This Creature's Severed Body Parts Live On

A piece of an animal gets separated from the animal. It should die. That is the rule. Psolus fabricii, a cold-water sea cucumber from the North Atlantic, threw out the rule book.

Researchers at Memorial University of Newfoundland cut tube feet and tentacles from adult P. fabricii specimens and placed them in tanks of ordinary flowing seawater. No special nutrients. No antibiotics. No sterile culture medium. The tissue healed its own wounds, reorganized its internal structure, ran active immune responses and absorbed amino acids directly from the surrounding water, feeding itself without a mouth or digestive tract. More than three years later, the explants were still alive.

Regeneration usually means an animal regrows what it lost. Here, the lost parts are the ones doing the living. Severed tentacles kept extending and retracting when touched, suggesting their nerve networks survived the cut. One cluster of tube feet ended up buried under about 0.4 inch (10 millimeters) of mud. Still alive.

Researchers have no answers for how P. fabricii can do this when its relatives cannot. Tissue from every other echinoderm species tested decayed within 3.5 months. The researchers suspect the animal produces chemical compounds that ward off infection, but how the tissue maintains itself long-term is unresolved.

The original animal loses a body part and keeps going. The body part loses the animal and keeps going.

Read the full story at Science Advances, May 27, 2026

Hot Take: Three years undead, and the most aggressive thing these zombies have done is absorb amino acids. We are not yet afraid.