Researchers scanned the heads of blind cave salamanders to learn how the environment shaped their senses. They were able to map the internal layout of the brain, olfactory organs, ears, facial muscles, and the remnants of eyes using X-ray micro-computed tomography. Even by salamander standards, what they found was weird. The olm is a salamander native to southern Europe. Olms were thought to be the offspring of dragons by the earliest written accounts of the animal. The salamander can live a century. The olm has a long head and small arms, and if you squint, it looks like a smooth snake. The way cave-dwelling creatures adapt to life in darkness is the reason for its bizarre features.
Olms aren't completely blind. After the animals hatch, the eyes of the larvae are no longer functioning. If you shine a light near an olm, it would likely flee. They don't have much in the way of vision, but their other senses are sharp.
The team scanned the heads of the olm and axolotl at different stages of development in order to compare their differing anatomies. The scans showed remnant eyes, but the vestigial eyes and nerves of the adult specimen were too small. The blind salamander's sense of smell improved as it lost its sight, because its olfactory cavities were longer. The olm's ability to detect pressure changes in water requires further examination.
One mystery of the olm brain scans was the animal's capacity for regeneration. The ability of the olm to regrowth body parts is an intriguing subject of study for the future of human medicine.
The 3D models will allow scientists to research behavioral responses in relation to chemical signals, according to the study author. There is a new paper published today. The three-dimensional models are publicly accessible to further the study of the olm.
The axolotl's genome was first completed in 2019. The researchers hope that the new X-ray scans will show how the cave salamander's regeneration ability differs from that of its surface-dwelling relative.
The First Two Dragon Babies Have Hatched.
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