Researchers Wilson and Child showed circa 1930 that if the hydra was pulped and the disassociated food passed through a sieve, those cells then put into an aqueous solution would shortly reform into the original organism with all differentiated tissue correctly arranged.
[1] Morphallaxis is often contrasted with epimorphosis, which is characterized by a much greater relative degree of cellular proliferation.
[1] The biological process was first discovered in hydra by Abraham Trembley, who was considered the father of environmental zoology.
Abraham Trembley was doing research on a sample of pond water and examined the lifestyle of hydra.
[2] The process and mechanism of planarian regeneration was eventually renamed to 'Morphallaxis' by Thomas Hunt Morgan, the father of experimental genetics.
The head portion of the hydra contains the mouth and tentacles, which allows for the catching and eating of food.
[3] When a hydra is cut in half, the head portion can regenerate and form a new foot with the basal disc, and the foot portion can regenerate and form a new head with the hypostome region.
This results in a smaller hydra that was regenerated by morphallaxis and occurs without cellular division.
Hydras contain a series of gradients that controls the formation of the correct head and foot regeneration.