They have even evolved the ability toautotomize and to regenerate the lost appendages subsequently (Wada, 2017).

The ability of the aeolids toautotomize and regenerate their cerata supports this hypothesis (Thompson, 1960b; Edmunds, 1966; Miller, 2000; Fleming, 2007), as does the observation that, when attacked, aeolids typically contract the body and the rhinophores, while holding the cerata more erect and oriented toward the attacking predator (Edmunds, 1966; Aguado and Marin, 2007).

Males induced toautotomize a claw showed little reduction in their competitive ability; however, those subject to the fishery practice of manual declawing showed a marked decrease in their competitive ability.

Injuries are thus particularly studied in animals having the ability toautotomize a body part (Formanowicz., 1990; Maginnis, 2006) or to regenerate missing part, which is after this process different from original body part (Gvozdik, 2000; Maginnis, 2006).

Young lizards thatautotomize their tails may lose resources important to somatic growth at a critical time, and thus, regeneration may be especially costly.

An important aspect of autotomy is that this process is, to some varying extent, at the discretion of the individual, and the 'willingness' of an animal to lose an appendage (i.e., time toautotomize an entrapped limb) may therefore reflect its present circumstances.

Because red king crabs canautotomize (drop) injured legs, crabs with a fresh autotomy were classified separately from those with other leg injuries.