How many times lizard can shed its tail: Answer surprised scientists
A lizard sheds its tail to distract a predator (illustrative photo: Freepik)
The ability of lizards to shed their tails in moments of danger and later regenerate them is well known. However, it turns out this ability has certain limitations.
IFL Science explains how many times a lizard can regrow its tail.
How many times a lizard can regrow its tail
It turns out that technically there is no limit to how many times a lizard can regrow its tail. However, according to Dr. Damian Lettoof, a research fellow at the School of Molecular and Life Sciences at Curtin University, once the original bony tail is lost, it will never be the same again.
Although lizard tails are designed for regeneration, when the tail vertebra breaks along a specific plane, a rigid cartilage rod grows in place of the vertebra. This regeneration process, studied by scientists for many years, is made possible by a structure called the glial membrane, which lines the lizard's spinal cord.
The removal of the replacement rod is less likely to trigger regeneration, but observations show that lizards can regenerate their tails multiple times if they have enough nutrients.
Moreover, if a lizard’s real tail remains partially attached, the organism can also begin regenerating, growing a new tail alongside the original. This gives the lizard the appearance of a mythical creature with a split tail.
This peculiar feature is called bifurcation. As discovered by biology professor Dr Hinrich Kaiser from Victor Valley College, this phenomenon is quite common among lizards.
Some lizards can grow multiple tails (illustrative photo: Freepik)
While analyzing existing data on lizards with multiple tails, a scientist even discovered a case where a lizard had regrown as many as nine tails.
Hinrich Kaiser, together with researcher Timothy Baum, decided to thoroughly study this phenomenon among other lizard species, starting with specimens Baum found in his yard. At that time, the scientists had no idea that these extraordinary traits - multiple tails - would be characteristic of 250 species of lizards from 25 families.
Most of the studied lizards were bifid, meaning they had two tails, but in 13% of species, a greater number of tails was observed. However, the scientists suggest that multiple tails in lizards are not particularly rare or unusual phenomena.
