How do lizards regrow their tails?

Question

How do lizards regrow their tails?

Answer 1

it just grows back over time through its natural growing process.

Answer 2

The process of a lizard breaking off its tail is called AUTOTOMY, from the Greek auto = "self-" and tomy = "severing."

Zones of weakness, called "fracture planes," exist WITHIN verebrae. In this diagram, a fracture plane is indicated with a series of small black arrows: http://www.ispub.com/xml/journals/ijba/v...

These are generally where the tail breaks in most lizards, and this is known as "transvertebral autotomy." It is similar to how mica and other crystals generally cleave along certain axes of structural weakness - likewise, lizard vertebrae are formed in this way to allow breakage. Here is a photo of a broken tail - you can see how clean the break is: http://www.naturegrid.org.uk/biodiversit...

The regrowth occurs as follows:

· Stem cells in the spinal cord migrate into the regrowing tail and differentiate into several cell types, including muscle and cartilage. Although the stem cells are ectoderm, they are able to develop into mesoderm.

· Muscle cells in the stump migrate into the blastema (a mass of undifferentiated cells) while reentering the cell cycle to produce thousands of descendants. They dedifferentiate as they do so; that is, they lose the characteristic proteins, etc. of muscle cells.

· Even though there is as yet no sign of a tail, its final pattern is established during this process, for if the blastema is removed and transplanted elsewhere, it will continue the process of regenerating a tail.

· Finally the cells of the blastema differentiate into all the cell types - nerve, muscle, cartilage, skin - used to build the regenerated tail.

The regrown tail may then take a slightly different and more monochromatic appearance, and structurally it is very different from the original tail - the regrown part is now made up of a simple tube of cartilage, with no verebrae. It is true that the part that grows back cannot be broken again - in the future, the tail will only be able to break above the spot where it broke previously.

A lizard uses autotomy as a defense against predators. After a predator breaks off the tail, the broken piece can continue to thrash around for up to five minutes due to muscle spasms, and this distracts the predator. The lizard then contracts sphincter muscles in the unbroken part of its tail to control bleeding by cutting off the caudal artery.

According to New Scientist, "lizards may carry more than half of their total reserves of fat in the tail. Loss of these reserves makes the animal more susceptible to starvation."

Answer 3

Lizards are a popular prey to animals like eagles and snakes. They have camoflaged skin and the ability to stay still like a statue. They can also sprint away, because speed is the lizards main defence. If these defences fail, then many lizards have the ability to sacrifice their tails. In some species of lizards, their tail is more brightly coloured than the rest of their body so the predator will go for the tail. Many lizards have green or blue tails. These colours are bright enough to be distracting but they are not easy for the enemy to spot from a distance. Shedding their tail is not common to all species of lizards but for those that are common there are two different methods to shed their tail. When the lizard is caught by its tail, it will split the vertebrae and shed part of its tail that is being held by its attacker. The other method is that the lizards tail breaks between the vertebrae but lizards that shed them this way seem less able to grow them again. A regrown tail looks similar to the original. There is usually a change of colour where the tail broke off. A regrown tail is made of cartilage instead of bone. Once the lizard has shed and regrown its tail it can only shed its tail above the point its old tail was lost.

Answer 4

if you have them in sand then take them out and give it about 2-3 weeks.