Newts Can Regenerate Almost Anything

Superheroes who are worth their salt must be tough. They must be capable of taking a beating from characters like Thanos or Stilt-Man. Additionally, not all of them can be as powerful as the Hulk or as nearly invulnerable as Superman. Things must occasionally become a little gory and macabre, as they can in the life of a fire-bellied newt.

Many amphibians are renowned for their capacity for regeneration. They can regrow a toe or a tail if they lose one. Similar to that, but on an entirely different, inconceivable level, are fire-bellied newts. In tests, it was discovered that newts could regenerate their eyes 18 times in a row over the course of 16 years, with each regeneration producing eyes that were identical to the originals.

Newts are capable of recovering from extraordinary wounds, such as a damaged spinal cord, that would usually be fatal to most other life forms. Some newts can even produce new brain tissue to restore the organ once hypoxia, the shortage of oxygen in tissues that results in things like brain death, is overcome. Even cardiac injury can be repaired; newts can recover after losing 10% to 20% of their heart tissue.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Urodela
Family: Salamandridae
Subfamily: Pleurodelinae