What do you do when you’re scared? Maybe you scream. Perhaps you lose your head. Well, lizards lose their tails — literally! This is known as . Lizards separate their tails from their bodies. This confuses . Then, lizards can escape. Scientists in Abu Dhabi, UAE, just learned how these do it.
Discoveries start with a question. Researcher Navajit Singh Baban had one. “How does a lizard shed its tail so quickly?” A lizard’s tail is important for balance. A lizard’s tail is also firmly attached. “Thus, it would not lose it accidentally,” Baban explained. So, how does the tail fall off so easily when the animal is in danger?
“We set out to find the answer,” Baban said. “First, we caught some lizards,” he added. Then, the scientists brought the lizards to the lab. The experts pulled at the animals’ tails.
The lizards dropped their tails soon after. “We found that lizards used bending of their tails to start the autotomy process,” Baban said. “Bending is the key to quick breakage.” The tails did not come loose when Baban tugged at them. But soon after a tug, the lizards would twist their tails. That’s how they broke off!
The experts studied the broken tails under a microscope. The scientists noticed tiny mushroom-shaped structures at the breaking point. These structures help the tail stay in one piece when pulled. But when the tail is twisted, it can come apart easily.
Don’t worry about the lizards though! “Lizards can regrow their tails,” Baban shared. And, he added, “all were safely released.”
The researchers hope this discovery will help humans. Their findings could help improve wound healing in humans. Baban shared an idea. He said experts could make “ patches that can stick inside the body to provide medicine.” These patches would then be able to “come off quickly.”
Baban hopes to inspire other scientists too. “My advice is to look closely at nature — to respect and protect it,” he said. “Nature has kept a lot of secrets, just waiting to be discovered.”
Updated February 25, 2022, 5:01 P.M. (ET)
By Alexa Tirapelli
