Why geckos lose their tails

Understanding how lizards like the Western banded gecko are able to survive carries a significance beyond the lizards themselves. Though they eat a variety of small insects, they also serve as a key food source for birds, snakes, and other predatory mammals. Materials provided by University of California - Riverside.

Original written by Jules Bernstein. Note: Content may be edited for style and length. Science News. ScienceDaily, 23 June University of California - Riverside. Geckos might lose their tails, but not their dinner: Ability to capture prey unaffected by defensive tail detachment. Retrieved November 11, from www. In nature, we see other animals that regrow different parts. Some worms split into pieces can grow into new individual worms. Sea cucumbers can do this as well.

Some spiders can even regrow missing legs or parts of legs. Some salamanders can also shed their tails. You know, tails can come in handy. Some lizards can wrap their tails around vines or branches. Others use their tails as a kind of propeller to help them move through the water.

Tails are also useful for balance. And for some lizards, being able to ditch their tail might just save their life. Search for:. It can take a western banded gecko up to a month to regenerate its tail, so the team are keen to find out if the lizards regain their agility once the limb has grown back.

These lizards are an important part of the ecosystem in Mexico and the southwestern US, as they eat insects and help control the scorpion population, but they are also key prey for birds, snakes and mammals. Tail autotomy is really common in lizards, and is found in 13 of the 20 lizard families.

There are two methods that lizards use to shed their tails: intervertebral autotomy and intravertebral autotomy. In intervertebral autotomy the tail will break off between the vertebrae. With intravertebral autotomy, there are perforated fracture points across the centre of each vertebra in the mid-point of the tail.

Blood vessel sphincters will contract after tail loss, to minimise blood loss. Some lizard species, such as the five-lined skink, have brightly coloured tails to attract the attention of predators, therefore directing attacks away from the head and body and towards the tail, which they can afford to lose if they are captured.