The most confusing behaviors of strange lizards: bubbles appear on their heads, they shed their scales when encountering enemies...

In the large family of reptiles, lizards have a relatively weaker presence compared to crocodiles that eat everything with their big mouths, turtles that carry shells or leather, and other creepy snakes. But did you know that there are many "weirdos" in the lizard family?

August 14th of each year is International Lizard Day. Today, let’s learn about the confusing behaviors of strange lizards one by one...

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Smart "diver" - aquatic anole

The water anole is a type of lizard native to the west coast of Costa Rica. It is called a "smart diver" because it has mastered a skill called "scuba diving."

In 2021, Christopher Boccia, a master's degree student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto and a doctorate student at Queen's University in Canada, conducted in-depth research on aquatic anoles.

He put six different kinds of aquatic anole lizards into a water tank filled with water and found that these aquatic anole lizards would first exhale a large breath and exhale an expanding bubble from their noses. When the aquatic anole lizards needed oxygen, they would absorb oxygen from the bubble, and the bubble would shrink into the nose accordingly due to the reduction of oxygen.

Close-up of the head of an aquatic anole lizard, with a bubble of air in its nose for breathing. (Photo by Lindsey Swierk)

The researchers also used oxygen sensors to measure the oxygen saturation in the bubbles and found that the longer the anoles stayed underwater, the lower the oxygen content in the bubbles, indicating that the anoles were indeed consuming the oxygen in the bubbles. Storing the exhaled oxygen in the bubbles and then absorbing it from the bubbles when needed is a "scuba diving" skill, which is essentially a "re-breathing" behavior.

The role of bubbles in aquatic anoles is like the "scuba tank" carried by divers. Relying on the "scuba diving" skills, aquatic anoles can stay underwater for more than ten minutes!

In addition, Dr. Christopher Boccia also believes that this bubble may act as a "physical gill" to help aquatic anoles collect more oxygen from the water, and the carbon dioxide accumulated in the bubble can also escape into the water from the surface of the bubble through "diffusion", thus forming a breathing cycle.

An aquatic anole lizard dives into the water (Photo by Lindsey Swierk)

Aquatic anole lizards have no choice but to develop such skills. On the one hand, aquatic anole lizards are watched by many predators, and their speed of escape is not good, so they are easily caught up, so they stay underwater for a long time to avoid being discovered by predators.

On the other hand, the insects that aquatic anoles like to eat mainly live underwater, so they often have to do "underwater work". The pressure of life has made this the smartest "diver"!

A scene of an aquatic anole breathing underwater

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Cool "Spider-Man" - Mwanza Flat-headed Flying Lizard

Do you believe that some lizards look like the Marvel hero Spider-Man? The Mwanza flat-headed rock agama, which lives in Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya in Africa, is also known as the "Spider-Man lizard" because the male Mwanza flat-headed rock agama has a bright red or purple head, neck and shoulders, and a dark blue body, which is exactly like the cool Spider-Man!

Left, a male Mwanza flat-headed dragon lizard in Tanzania's Serengeti National Park (Photo by Christian Mehlführer), right, Spider-Man from Web of Spider-Man #129.1 (October 2012), illustrated by Mike McCormick and Maury Hollowell.

A male Mwanza flat-headed flying dragon lizard that even imitates Spider-Man's pose (Photo by Harmon JP)

The sexes of the Mwanza flat-headed dragon lizard are very different. Compared with the coolness of the males, the female Mwanza flat-headed dragon lizards appear to be overshadowed. Most of them are inconspicuous brown, which is difficult to distinguish from female lizards of other species. However, the plainness has its advantages. The body color of the female Mwanza flat-headed dragon lizard is not so eye-catching.

During the day, both males and females will often lie on rocks or hills to bask in the sun during hot weather, but at night (or when frightened), male Mwanza flat-headed dragon lizards will turn their cool "Spider-Man" coats brown, probably to protect themselves and make them less visible to enemies.

A female Mwanza flat-headed dragon lizard in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. (Photo by D. Gordon E. Robertson)

In addition, the male Mwanza flat-headed flying lizard has more similarities with Spider-Man than just the "jacket". Spider-Man can fly over eaves and walls, and if faced with an emergency, the male Mwanza flat-headed flying lizard can not only run on its two hind legs, but also climb vertical walls. The Mwanza flat-headed flying lizard's agility cannot escape the "clutches" of humans.

In Kenya, their natural habitat has been gradually eroded by human invasion, but unlike other animals, the Mwanza flat-headed dragon lizard has begun to try to live with humans, such as treating the thatched houses of local residents as their own homes.

A male Mwanza flat-headed dragon lizard lies on a steep rock. (Photo by Stig Nygaard)

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The self-abusing "escapee" - the tiger

When it comes to escaping, the lizard family is full of talents. Some of them trot away, some cut off their own tails... But do you know who the most cruel and self-abusive "escapee" is?

In the 19th century, scientists discovered a type of "self-abusing" gecko on islands such as Madagascar and Comoros. When they encounter danger, they can automatically shed their scales, exposing their "bodies" to confuse the enemy, and then take the opportunity to escape. This is the gecko. In 1867, Grandidier confirmed the first species of the gecko: the pearl scale gecko (Geckolepis typica).

Since then, scientists have discovered the spotted tiger (Geckolepis maculata), Comoros tiger (Geckolepis humbloti), and polylepis tiger (Geckolepis polylepis) that can use this "self-mutilation escape method".

The first species of gecko discovered by humans - the pearl scale gecko (Grandidier, 1867)

In 2017, Scherz MD and other scholars discovered a new species of gecko, the big gecko (Geckolepis megalepis), in the karst limestone mountains of Ankarana National Park in northern Madagascar. Not only can it shed its scales and escape when in danger like other members of the gecko, but it also has the largest scales in the gecko family.

A and B are the giant scale tiger before molting; C is the giant scale tiger after molting, and the special mark is the transparent "tear area" at the bottom of the giant scale tiger's scales. (Photographed by Scherz MD, Daza JD, Köhler J, Vences M, Glaw F, etc.)

Regarding the "scaling" mechanism of geckos, C. Schubert and other scholars conducted research between 1985 and 1990 and believed that geckos achieve this by contracting the "myofibroblasts" at the base of the skin. The scales are not simply shed from the skin, but are separated from this special layer of "myofibroblasts". This separation area is also called "splitting zones".

While shedding its scales, the tiger's blood vessels will contract as much as possible to minimize unnecessary blood loss.

After the scales fall off, the geckos will be in this bare skin state for a while, but it doesn't matter, their scales will regenerate after a few weeks.

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The rude "eater" - Caiman lizard

There are many reptiles that eat in an ugly way, such as crocodiles' death spins, pythons' swallowing whole, and snapping turtles' chomping. In the lizard family, there is also a kind of rough eater: the Guiana caiman lizard (Dracaena), also known as the flash lizard.

Caiman lizards are mainly distributed in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Guyana in South America. They love to stay in swamps and some flooded forest areas. Caiman lizards spend most of their time basking in the sun on branches hanging over the water. In this way, they can bask in the sun on the one hand, and jump into the water immediately to avoid enemies when there is danger on the other hand.

Left: A caiman lizard perched on a tree in Prague Zoo (Photo by Jiel Beaumadier); Right: A caiman lizard diving in the water (Photo by Tim Vickers)

The waters where caiman lizards live and the surrounding areas are full of things they like to eat: snails, fish, amphibians, crabs, crayfish, clams... Yes, caiman lizards like to eat mostly hard shells. Caiman lizards have large and strong heads (usually red or orange), super-developed muscles in their jaws, and round and blunt teeth, which help them crush and eat shelled prey such as snails, crayfish and freshwater clams.

Caiman lizards particularly like to eat snails. When eating snails, they first bite the snail in their mouths, then tilt their heads back and let the snail slide into the back of their mouths. They then crush the snail shell with their back teeth and spit out the shell. Sometimes they don't even spit out the shell and swallow it together with the shell and the meat.

That’s not all. Some extremely ferocious caiman lizards will even bite the edge of the yellow-headed side-necked turtle’s shell and eat the turtle meat!

Left: The teeth of the caiman lizard are round and blunt (Source: WordPress); Right: The caiman lizard crushes the snail shell and swallows it together with the meat and shell (Source: Biolib)

The caiman lizard, which eats food so roughly, also looks very majestic. It has short and strong limbs and a long and flat tail. The largest individual can reach about 1.2 meters. It is somewhat similar to the caiman, no wonder it has "caiman" in its name.

Left: Broad-nosed caiman at the Sao Paulo Zoo (Photo by Miguelrangeljr); Right: The caiman lizard looks quite similar to the caiman (Source: tumblr)

Which lizard do you think is the weirdest?

[Cold Facts] It’s called “Lizard”, but it’s not a lizard

Sphenodon, commonly known as beaked lizard, New Zealand crocodile lizard, and spiny back crocodile lizard, is a rare reptile living in New Zealand. It looks like a lizard, but it does not belong to the "Squamata" where lizards and snakes are, nor does it belong to the "Crocodyli" or "Testudinidae". It is an independent and ancient "Rhynchocephalus" (which appeared in the Middle Triassic), and it is also the only surviving member of this order. Currently, it is only distributed on several islands in the Cook Strait in New Zealand worldwide, but due to the invasion of mustelids and rodents, its survival is quite poor.

A sphenodon resting on a rock (Source: ChongDae)

References:

[1]Boccia, Christopher K.; Swierk, Lindsey; Ayala-Varela, Fernando P.; Boccia, James; Borges, Isabela L.; Estupiñán, Camilo Andres; Martínez-Grimaldo, Ramón E.; Ovalle, Sebastian; Senthivasan, Shreeram; Toyama, Ken S. (2021-07-12). "Repeated evolution of underwater rebreathing in diving Anolis lizards". Current Biology. 31 (13)

[2]Magazine, Smithsonian; Gamillo, Elizabeth. "Diving Anole Lizards Use Bubbles to Breathe Underwater". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2021-10-19.

[3]Baeckens, Simon; Temmerman, Marie; Gorb, Stanislav N.; Neto, Chiara; Whiting, Martin J.; Van Damme, Raoul (2021-10-01). "Convergent evolution of skin surface microarchitecture and increased skin hydrophobicity in semi-aquatic anole lizards". Journal of Experimental Biology. 224 (19)

[4]Menegon, M.; Spawls, S.; Wagner, P.; Beraduccii, J. (2014). "Agama mwanzae". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2014

[5]Spawls, S.; Howell, KM; Drewes, RC (2006). Reptiles and Amphibians of East Africa. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

[6]Kennedy, AS, & Kennedy, V. (2014). Animals of the serengeti: And ngorongoro conservation area. Princeton, UNITED STATES: Princeton University Press.

[7]Scherz, Mark D.; Daza, Juan D.; Köhler, Jörn; Vences, Miguel; Glaw, Frank. Off the scale: a new species of fish-scale gecko (Squamata: Gekkonidae: Geckolepis) with exceptionally large scales. PeerJ. 2017, 5

[8] Voeltzkow, Alfred. Bericht über die Senckenbergische naturforschende Gesellschaft. 1893, 1893: 43–50.

[9] Schubert, C.; Steffen, T.; Christophers, E. Geckolepis typica (Reptilia, Gekkonidae). Zoologischer Anzeiger. 1990

[10]Schubert, C.; Christophers, E. "Dermolytische Schreckhäutung"—ein besonderes Autotomieverhalten von Geckolepis typica (Reptilia, Gekkonidae). Zoologischer Anzeiger. 1985

[11] "Caiman Lizard | the Dallas World Aquarium". 7 January 2010.

**Author of this article: ****Qu Shiyi, ****Master of History School of Wuhan University, ** majoring in Shang and Zhou Dynasty archaeology.

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