The movement dynamics of autotomized lizards and their tails reveal functional costs of caudal autotomy  

作　　者：Irene FERNÁNDEZ-RODRÍGUEZ Florentino BRAÑA 

机构地区：[1]Department of Organisms and Systems Biology(Zoology),University of Oviedo,Oviedo,Spain [2]Research Unit of Biodiversity(UMIB,UO/CSIC/PA),University of Oviedo,Mieres,Spain

出　　处：《Integrative Zoology》2020年第6期511-521,共11页整合动物学（英文版）

基　　金：the Ministry of Infrastructures,Land Use and Environment of the Principality of Asturias Regional Government,for the capture and maintenance of the animals(2017/007429);The authors thank Tania Rodríguez Díaz for her helpful comments on the language.Irene Fernández-Rodríguez was supported by a Severo Ochoa fellowship from the Principality of Asturias(BP16192).

摘　　要：Autotomy has evolved independently several times in different animal lineages.It frequently involves immediate functional costs,so regeneration evolved in many instances to restore the functionality of that body part.Caudal autotomy is a widespread antipredator strategy in lizards,although it may affect energy storage,locomotion dynamics,or survival in future encounters with predators.Here,we assessed the effect of tail loss on the locomotor performance of wall lizards(Podarcis muralis),as well as the recovery of locomotor functionality of lizards with regenerated tails,and the movement dynamics of shed tails that were either intact or having regenerated portions.Tail loss had no effect on locomotion over unhindered spaces,possibly due to compensation between a negative effect on the stride of front limbs,and a positive effect of losing mass and friction force.We found a clear negative impact of tail loss on locomotion in spaces with interspersed obstacles,in which tailed lizards jumped larger distances when leaving the obstacles.Besides,lizards that used the tail to push off the ground were able to approach the obstacles from further,so that the tail seemed to be useful when used during jumping.Regeneration fully restores lizard’s locomotor capacities,but tail antipredator value,as indicated by the intensity of post-autotomic movements,is only partially retrieved.From these results,we propose that,together with the recovery of post-autotomy antipredator capacities,the restoration of the organismal locomotor performance may have been an important,yet frequently neglected factor in the evolution of lizard’s regeneration ability.

关 键 词：AUTOTOMY locomotor performance regeneration tail wall lizard 

分 类 号：Q95[生物学—动物学]