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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.
Slender glass lizard (Ophisaurus attenuatus)Ophisaurus (from the Greek 'snake-lizard') is a genus of superficially snake-like legless lizards in the subfamily Anguinae.Known as joint snakes, glass snakes, or glass lizards, they are so-named because their tails are easily broken; like many lizards, they have the ability to deter predation by dropping off part of the tail, which can break into ...
The pieces of tail will continue to move once broken off. Two common beliefs are that the pieces of broken tail can grow into new lizards or rejoin into a new tail. [12] In a 1989 study, 79% of the specimens in the population area had broken tails. [10] It is hard to find a slender glass lizard that has its entire tail.
Anole tails often have the ability to break off at special segments, which is known as autotomy. The tail continues to wriggle for a period after detaching, attracting the attention of the predator and commonly allowing the anole to escape. [62] The tail is regenerated, but it takes more than two months to complete this process.
The success of the common house gecko can also be explained through other elements of competition, such as postural displays and movement patterns. An example of this is how the common house gecko can trigger an "avoidance response" in the mourning gecko, causing it to avoid a specific area where food may become available. [18]
Hydrosaurus, commonly known as the sailfin dragons or sailfin lizards, is a genus in the family Agamidae. [2] These relatively large lizards are named after the sail-like structure on their tails. They are native to Indonesia (4 species) and the Philippines (1 species) where they are generally found near water, such as rivers and mangrove . [ 3 ]
The brown anole (Anolis sagrei), also known commonly as the Cuban brown anole, Bahaman anole, or De la Sagra's anole, [3] is a species of lizard in the family Dactyloidae.The species is native to Cuba and the Bahamas.
Amphisbaenia / æ m f ɪ s ˈ b iː n i ə / (called amphisbaenians or worm lizards) is a group of typically legless lizards, [2] comprising over 200 extant species. Amphisbaenians are characterized by their long bodies, the reduction or loss of the limbs, and rudimentary eyes.