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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.
These, for example the house gecko, become part of the indoor menagerie and are often welcomed, as they feed on insect pests; including moths and mosquitoes. 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.
For the side-blotched lizard, limbs serve as an anti-predatory defense – their ability to survive without a tail allows them to escape predation after being caught. While this defense mechanism can be advantageous, the loss of a tail can also negatively impacts a lizard’s survival and reproduction.
Most lizard species and some snake species are insectivores. The remaining snake species, tuataras, and amphisbaenians, are carnivores. While some snake species are generalist, others eat a narrow range of prey - for example, Salvadora only eat lizards. [33] The remaining lizards are omnivores and can consume plants or insects. The broad ...
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 ]