See Lizards in Motion

April 23, 2008

How you, and other animals, eat affects how you move, according to a new Ohio University study that focused on lizard biomechanics. Here's one of our demonstrator lizards for today:

Doctoral student Eric McElroy and his team determined that lizards get their prey in two basic different ways. The first method involves sitting and waiting. Sort of the lizard version of eating at a restaurant, except the food either flies or crawls by, forcing the lizard to run like heck for it. Check out this video, and be sure not to blink. This lizard is fast!

The other basic method is more like a hunter-gatherer approach. Lizards that use this technique move constantly, but fairly slowly. While all lizards have the ability to run, these foraging reptiles evolved a meandering gait, which you can see here.

“The most interesting aspect of this research is that it demonstrates a clear link between animal behavior and functional morphology. It’s quite amazing and surprising that the behavioral diversity that everyone knows about and is inspired by is grounded in form, function and physiology,” McElroy said.

So the next time you see a lizard move, be it a skink, iguana or other type, you can predict how it hunts by watching it move. Regular runners sit and wait for their chow until the moment of opportunity strikes, while walkers forage.

I'll leave you with one last photo of one of the study test subjects. Like an Olympic athlete, this skink shows it's on the mark and ready for action.