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A white-headed dwarf gecko with tail lost due to autotomy. Autotomy (from the Greek auto-, "self-" and tome, "severing", αὐτοτομία) or 'self-amputation', is the behaviour whereby an animal sheds or discards an appendage, [1] usually as a self-defense mechanism to elude a predator's grasp or to distract the predator and thereby allow escape.
The tail length can be equal to the length of the body from snout to the anus (SVL or Snout-Vent Length). [3] In 2004, the species was synonymized with Lygodactylus picturatus. [4] The yellow-headed dwarf gecko has a defense mechanism called tail autotomy, where they drop their tails to flee to safety when they are attacked by a predator.
A new tail will then grow in its place, usually lacking the original color and texture. The muscles in the old tail will continue to flex for up to 30 minutes after the drop to distract predators. [5] Leopard geckos (Eublepharis macularius) and African fat-tailed geckos (Hemitheconyx caudicinctus) are popular pet lizards.
Like most lizards, geckos can lose their tails in defence, a process called autotomy; the predator may attack the wriggling tail, allowing the gecko to escape. [ 8 ] The largest species, Gigarcanum delcourti , is only known from a single, stuffed specimen probably collected in the 19th century found in the basement of the Natural History Museum ...
Like other species of gecko, individuals of G. japonicus primarily eat insects. The species is capable of autotomy, and will separate its tail from its body to escape predators. While this process avoids bleeding, as blood vessels at the base of the tail close to prevent blood loss, the gecko does lose a supply of fat tissue, which it can use ...
The tail can be dropped (via caudal autotomy) to distract predators. The crested gecko does not regenerate its tail once lost. Most adults in the wild lack tails. [4] The toes and the tip of the semi-prehensile tail are covered in small hairs called setae. Each seta is divided into hundreds of smaller (approximately 200 nanometres in diameter ...
One subspecies is recognized, in addition to the nominate one: Lygodactylus picturatus sudanensis Loveridge, 1935, the Sudani dwarf gecko. The species Lygodactylus luteopicturatus was synonymized with L. picturatus in 2004. [3] White-headed dwarf gecko in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The tail has been lost due to a self-defense mechanism known as ...
The high observed frequency of tail loss, coupled with rapid and complete regeneration, suggests that caudal autotomy is an important survival tactic in this species. Although caudal autotomy may allow the Cape dwarf gecko to escape its predator, there have been documented downsides to this survival mechanism.