What do you do when you’re scared? Maybe you run and hide. You might scream or lose your head. When lizards are under attack, they lose their tails — literally! This is known as . Lizards separate their tails from their bodies. This confuses . Then, lizards have time to escape. Scientists in Abu Dhabi, UAE, just learned exactly how these do it.
Every scientific discovery starts with a question. For researcher Navajit Singh Baban, it was “How does a lizard shed its tail so quickly?” A lizard’s tail is important for balance and movement. The tail is also firmly attached to a lizard’s body. “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 to this question,” Baban told News-O-Matic. “First, we caught some lizards,” he said. Then, the scientists brought the lizards to the lab. The experts pulled at the animals’ tails — acting as predators.
The lizards dropped their tails soon after. And the scientists recorded videos of the tail-breaking moments. “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 to break them off.
The experts studied the broken tails under a microscope. The scientists noticed tiny mushroom-shaped structures at the breaking point. Each “mushroom cap” had small openings. These structures all 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. Of course, they don’t expect people to start dropping limbs. However, the experts’ findings could help improve wound healing in humans. Baban shared an idea: “We hope to use the findings for products such as patches that can stick inside the body to provide medicine.” These patches would then be able to “come off quickly when the purpose is served.”
Baban hopes his research will inspire other scientists to study nature too. “My advice to readers is to look more closely at nature — to respect, cherish, and protect it,” he said. “Nature has kept a lot of secrets, just waiting to be discovered.”
Updated February 25, 2022, 5:02 P.M. (ET)
By Alexa Tirapelli
