Hydractinia is a strange tube-shaped animal that lives on crab shells. It is absolutely immune to aging. The exact reasons why these immortal sea creatures are resistant to aging have always puzzled scientists. But now, new research seems to have finally given us an answer. According to a new study published Cell ReportsHydractinia can actually use aging to develop a whole new body.

This development gives scientists a much better understanding of how these immortal creatures continue to live, even though they should probably be dead. According to this news weekCharles Rotimo, co-author of the paper and director of the Intramural Research Program at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), says this type of research could open new avenues for our understanding of how aging occurs in the human body.

Scientists had previously discovered that Hydractinia has special stem cells that it uses to regenerate tissue in its body. These stem cells have the ability to transform and transform into any type of cell in the body of a living thing. More specialized cells, such as muscle and heart cells, cannot do this. This is what allows immortal sea creatures to develop new body parts.

The researchers continued to dig deeper, discovering that a particular set of genes appears to be linked to the immortality of this strange little creature. These genes allow the creature to go into “aging,” which essentially allows it to regenerate and regrow body parts. After removing this gene sequence, they found that Hydractinia was unable to regrow body parts and regenerate new stem cells.

It is hoped that a better understanding of how creatures like Hydractinia, and even others that use similar methods to repair body parts and repair damage, will help us understand how our cells age, and perhaps find a way to slow it down.