Thursday, July 2, 2009

Draco Lizards.






This SE Asian genus of lizards are also known as 'gliding lizards'. They stay on trees almost 24/7. The females venture down to lay eggs, guards for 24 hours, then runs away and never sees its offspring (knowingly). On trees is where they are safe. Each one is colored to match a tree species for camouflage (image #4... trust me, there's one there.) and with these 'wings' they can glide relatively large distances to avoid predation. Reptiles have an uncanny ability to use coloration for defense and signalling (see: Panther Chameleon and Satanic Leaf-Tailed Gecko) They also have rounded heads and a little flesh of skin that descends from their chin. Plenty of reptiles apparently also make good use of its flesh (see Jesus Christ Lizard). This is used for aerodynamics and steering -- there's no point in gliding if you can't stick a landing in a place that's safe. Similar to a rudder.

Linnaeus actually named these lizards 'draco' because of how they reminded him of dragons.

There's a video demonstrating this behavior -- it won't let me embed the video, so click here to watch it.

1 comment:

  1. I'm disappointed. I really thought this lizard would look like Draco Malfoy.

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