NEET BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Why do some lizards lose their tails? The answer, biologists have long thought, is to elude predators. The ability to shed and regenerate a tail-a common characteristic among most small lizards-is a defense mechanism enabling those lizards to escape the clutches of a predator.

Detailed explanation-2: -Regeneration is one of the highest priorities after autotomy, in order to optimize locomotor performance and recoup reproductive fitness. While regenerating their tails, caudal autotomy is restored at an energetic cost that often hinders body growth or intraspecies interactions.

Detailed explanation-3: -Lizards losing their tails when they are pulled by a predator is well known. This self-amputation is called autotomy. The severed tail continues to wiggle for about 30 minutes.

Detailed explanation-4: -A structure of prongs, micropillars and nanopores holds a lizard’s tail on tight enough to handle most jarring while remaining primed to drop the tail in case of emergency, researchers report in the Feb. 18 Science.