Why and how do lizards grow back separated tails?Jessica Chan, Medina, Washington
Bradford Hollingsworth and Dustin Wood, herpetologists at the San Diego Natural History Museum, reply:
Losing a tail is a significant event in a lizard’s life. Herpetologists refer to the process as caudal autotomy (caudal relates to “tail” and autotomy to “casting off a body part”). It is considered an antipredatory adaptation since it is effective at confusing a predator. Although the chance of attacking the tail versus the head is often described as fifty-fifty, many species have brightly colored tails, and they will wag them back and forth to increase the likelihood that a predator will target the tail. When attacked, a lizard releases its tail either by direct trauma or sometimes before it is even touched. The detached tail wiggles with a nervous spasm, distracting the predator long enough for the lizard to escape. The specific mechanism ...
