Wild Things:
Life as We Know It
Flight of the hummingbird, termite cloning and the rise of the octopus
- By Joseph Caputo, T.A. Frail, Megan Gambino, Abigail Tucker and Sarah Zielinski
- Smithsonian magazine, June 2009
(Martin Woike / Foto Natura / Minden Pictures)
Lizards on Greek islands with venomous snakes shed their tails more often than lizards on snake-free islands, according to a University of Michigan-led team. It seems the threat of being injected in the tail with venom leads lizards to sacrifice the appendage—a life-preserving act—when any predator (or researcher) clamps on.
Additional Sources
"Tail Shedding in Island Lizards [Lacertidae, Reptilia]: Decline of Antipredator Defenses in Relaxed Predation Environments," P. Pafilis et al., Evolution, May 2009.
"New Octopods (Cephalopoda: Coleoidea) from the Late Cretaceous (Upper Cenomanian) of Hâkel and Hâdjoula, Lebanon," Dirk Fuchs et al., Palaeontology, December 31, 2008.
"Queen Succession Through Asexual Reproduction in Termites," Kenji Matsuura et al., Science, March 27, 2009.
"Wingbeat Time and the Scaling of Passive Rotational Damping in Flapping Flight," Tyson L. Hedrick et al., Science, April 10, 2009.
"Selection for Vulnerability to Angling in Largemouth Bass," David Philipp et al., Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, January 2009.
Comments (2)
Living on the Big Island in Hawaii we have many small lizards. No snake predators though, so thee are many. Many has been the time I've come upon one of my cats playing with a gecko tail. Once, as I sat down to work in my garden, I frightened a gecko when I dropped my tools. He left me his tail, which continued moving and struggling about until I buried it deeply 5 minutes later. It was kind of freaky, just jumping around, just the tail jumping around. Gave me strange thoughts.
Posted by Mara Hisiger on June 11,2009 | 05:34 PM
. . .Bet they started small. Maybe even microscopically: Extra appendages would be a tremendous advantage in an "arms" race. Then, as accomplished predators, they simply grew as their prey did.
Posted by Doug Davidson on May 31,2009 | 08:00 PM