Question: how come the zebrafish can grow back there ogans but the other fish carnt

Juan Carlos Lopez-Baez answered on 8 Mar 2014:

Hi Millicentxox

Great question! The truth is that they are not the only ones. Scientists have discovered that other fish are also able to regrow their fins and other organs too. The thing is that we have studied zebrafish in more detail than other fish and discovered a lot more about the biology behind how and why the can regenerate their tissues and organs.

This is not to say that all fish can regenerate, but we have found a fair few that can. In fact, recently two new species of fish were discovered capable of regenerating their fins too like zebrafish. The more animals we find (fish and others) that can regenerate, the more we will be able to understand how regeneration works and identify whether it works in a conserved way (or in other words, if all the animals that regenerate do so in the same way).