Meet Hydra, the shape-shifting Dr. Manhattan of the animal kingdom

This freshwater organism is evidence that what doesn't kill you really does make you stronger

Hydra
(Image credit: (Carolina Biological/Visuals Unlimited/Corbis))

In the comic series Watchmen, physicist Jon Osterman is blown apart in a science experiment gone awry. But his "consciousness" is able to pull his body back together atom by atom, becoming the radiating, blue-skinned Dr. Manhattan. It took him months to reform, and in that time I wonder if he learned that trick from a tiny pond animal. For few creatures in fiction, and even fewer in real life, are capable of surviving being ripped to bits. But for hydras, it is an everyday affair.

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