Eli5: Why do we not regrow teeth and limbs?
In: Biology
I’d hasten to point out that, for mammals anyway, the ability to keep something alive after a limb has been torn off is relatively recent, largely due to medical intervention, and would have been incredibly rare in nature.
Most dismembered creatures would die of blood loss. Those that didn’t would die of infection. Those that didn’t would die of starvation by being unable to properly walk, hunt, or make tools.
It’s not evolutionarily advantageous to regrow limbs if losing one is a death sentence anyway.
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