Lizard tails give clues to cartilage formation (2024)

FAQs

Lizard tails give clues to cartilage formation? ›

Lizard tails give clues to cartilage formation

Lizards, however, represent an organism group that spontaneously generates an abundance of cartilage in response to skeletal injury. There are generally two mechanisms by which skeletal tissues are regenerated in adult organisms: fracture healing and blastema-based regeneration.

Since the tail is an important organ of lizards for survival as it helps them nourish, run, leap, mate, and escape the next predator, losing the tail is a costly sacrifice. Therefore, in normal circ*mstances, lizards retain their tails sturdily fixed to the body.

Lizard tails serve numerous purposes. They aide in balance and locomotion, maintain social status, and are a body area for fat storage. The tail provides a food source during periods of starvation and reproduction.

To get out of sticky situations, some lizards detach their tails from their bodies and scurry away. Scientists have long wondered how the bones and muscles in these tails—which help with balance and movement—can sever with ease when needed, but stay firmly in place when not.

Reptiles, including turtles, snakes, and lizards, have a fully ossified skeleton, which means their skeleton is completely made of bone.

Lizards can regrow severed tails, making them the closest relative to humans that can regenerate a lost appendage. But in lieu of the original tail that includes a spinal column and nerves, the replacement structure is an imperfect cartilage tube.

They provide a source of locomotion for fish and some other forms of marine life. Many land animals use their tails to brush away flies and other biting insects. Most canines use their tails to communicate mood and intention.

When a lizard detaches its tail, the tail whips around and wiggles on the ground. Nerves from the lizard's body are still firing and communicating with each other. In fact, sometimes the tail will keep moving for upwards of a half hour. This distracts a predator and gives the lizard plenty of time to escape.

Whether they belong to reptiles, insects, birds or mammals, tails serve a wide variety of purposes. Modern animals use their tails for everything from balance to communication and finding mates.

Is it painful for a lizard to lose its tail? ›

It's hard to know if a lizard is intentionally trying to detach its tail, but it often appears so. Losing the tail does not seriously harm a lizard, and may save its life, but the loss of a tail might have some negative effects besides a loss of stored energy.

The biggest risk to a lizard after tail loss is infection. Debris can get impacted on the tail stump which will introduce bacteria into the lizard's body. The best thing you can do for your tail-less lizard is to keep their habitat very clean.

The regrown lizard tail also includes tissues like muscle, nerves, and blood vessels. Scientists have been studying the lizard's unique ability to regenerate its tail in hopes that it can offer new insights into cartilage growth or limb repair in people.

Varanoid lizards typically have very sharp unicuspid teeth that are subconical to flattened and slightly recurved (e.g., McDowell and Bogert, 1954) (Fig. 8.4). These are often quite snakelike in appearance.

Geckos' ability to locomotion in complex habitats is largely due to the particular morphology of their spine. The concave amphicoelous vertebral structure with the persistent notochord and the presence of notochord-derived cartilage enhance flexibility for a greater range of motion.

Cartilage is an extremely elastic tissue. It is strong and flexible, not rigid and mineralized like bone. Most vertebrate animals have some cartilage. In humans, it's found throughout your body in your joints and even between your boney vertebrae.

It's hard to know if a lizard is intentionally trying to detach its tail, but it often appears so. Losing the tail does not seriously harm a lizard, and may save its life, but the loss of a tail might have some negative effects besides a loss of stored energy.