Science fiction is crazy enough to have us suspend reality to the point that we’d fancy Marvel’s Deadpool, after being decapitated, regenerating his entire body just from his head. It’s a wild idea. A good laugh. But it wasn’t original. Nature beat him to it.

Meet the self-decapitating sea slugs that can grow an entire new body from an old head. Just as with Deadpool, this superpower wasn’t intended for procreation. Biologists postulate that the most likely reason for this jaw-dropping capability (or should I say, head-dropping one) is that it’s a quick and conclusive way to rid itself of parasites that get in the way of its ability to reproduce.

The fact that it spontaneously detaches its own head, which then immediately starts to move around on its own—despite the loss of all its major bodily organs, including its heart—makes it more the stuff of a horror story than science fiction. Except it’s not a zombie slug. It remains very much alive—although the rest of it eventually dies. All to get rid of some pests.

Quite a drastic measure, I’d say. And far more remarkable compared to the homo sapiens sapiens’ solution to the same problem. From what I remember of The Naked Ape, one theory is that humans ended up bare compared to our hairy cousins (i.e. monkeys and apes) most likely because of our own need to rid our bodies of fleas and lice. Social grooming would have sufficed while living out in the open, but parasite infestation probably escalated to unbearable levels after we abandoned the trees and chose to dwell in cloistered caves. Had Deadpool evolved into being back then, we’d all probably still be covered in hair, save for bald heads which we could spontaneously detach and roll away from our parasite-infested bodies while carrying on a conversation with our cave-mates.

What sets the slugs’ extraordinary regenerating ability apart from Deadpool’s is that it doesn’t protect the lowly creature from death. The extremely myopic purpose of protection from parasites seems to be its main, if not, sole purpose. Because they don’t self-decapitate when under other forms of threat. In that case, therefore, Deadpool’s version of the rare ability indeed makes it a superpower. The ability to simply get rid of your own head so you could start all over again. I’d say, there’s a huge advantage to that. Overweight? Regret all those tattoos? Beset by health problems? Drop everything neck down and simply use the head on your…Oh right. You’d have lost your shoulders too.

Whatever the case, I just have to say, it’s really cool to be Deadpool.