Male Mwanza flat-headed iguanas from Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya have bright red heads, necks and upper bodies and dark blue underparts during the breeding season, which look strikingly similar to spider-man's clothing colors.
Among the existing reptiles, lizards are the most prosperous family, with about 3,000 species in the world and more than 150 species known in China. The lizard family's avoidance family, the Chameleon, is one of the most famous offshoots, but other members of the family have also successfully evolved their own colorful wild survival skills: geckos like to wander around the walls, tree lizards can climb on tree trunks, flying lizards glide through the woods with developed skin between their front and back limbs, and snake lizards use their smooth bodies to dig holes in the ground, hemp lizards, grass lizards, stone dragons, etc. are good at flying on the ground, and spotted-crowned iguanas can even "walk" freely on the surface of the water.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > unique skill</h1>
Lizards are prey for animals and carnivores. As a result, they have evolved many peculiar attack and defense abilities, and even some confusing unique skills. On the offensive side, the tongue is mainly used as a predatory tool, using the rough tongue surface and mucus to prey on insects. But there are also species, such as avoidance, that are not content with this "little trick of catching insects" and instead aim at birds that live on branches because the suction cups at the end of their tongues are so powerful that they can catch larger prey.
Monitor lizards are the most predatory of lizards. Living on the Indonesian island, the Komodo lizard is more than 4 meters long and is the largest lizard in the world today, preying on large animals such as pigs, deer and buffalo. It is said that in the early days of its life (the Pleistocene more than 10,000 years ago), it could even eat dwarf elephants of the time.
In terms of defense, in addition to the known "broken tail self-help", a variety of defensive weapons have also evolved into "cutting-edge" defensive weapons. For example, the Australian lizard has a crown-like collar around its neck, supported by a hyoid bone. Its color is very bright. Instantly opens in case of attack, which can scare away enemies.
The tail of the "Camouflage Master" leaf-tailed gecko on the island of Madagascar resembles a dead leaf, with jagged indentations on the edges, as if it has been bitten by an insect. Its camouflage technique is very clever, almost difficult to distinguish between true and false.
Crocodile lizard is a specialty of Guangxi in China, and after the branches of its perch are touched, they will immediately turn over and hide in puddles. Dive times can be up to 20 minutes. Therefore, it has a common name called "diving lizard".
The Obese Shorthorn Lizard of North America has a terrifying secret weapon that, when attacked, can spew poisonous blood from its eyes and has a range of up to 1 meter.
In the Bahamas, scientists introduced a large carnivorous lizard, and just 6 months later, the legs of the island's native brown discolored lizards became longer so that they could escape to the branches to avoid the "scourge of death".
Interestingly, in another six months, their legs became shorter because they were more accustomed to moving on small branches. In just one year, this species has evolved rapidly twice, which is amazing!
As a result, lizards have attracted the attention and research of more and more biologists and ecologists, and gradually unveiled mysteries that they were not aware of before. Many of their abilities have become the object of exploration and imitation by bionic experts.
Severing rebirth
The lizard will cut off its tail when attacked by the enemy, and the tail will constantly jump to attract the attention of predators, so it can take the opportunity to escape, and its tail can regenerate after survival. This is because the caudal vertebrae have a smooth articular surface that connects the anterior and posterior halves of the caudal vertebrae. The muscles, skin and scales here are thin and loose. Therefore, when the tail is attacked, the body swings violently, and the tail muscles contract strongly, which may break the tail vertebrae on the joint surface. Because the tail does not simply store energy in the form of fat, but forms glycosylated fats that are easier to release energy, the nerves and muscles of the newly broken tail maintain a certain function, constantly vibrating on the ground, thus playing a role in diverting the predator's line of sight.
After the tail is cut off, the wound on the self-injured surface heals quickly, forming a tail bud base. After a period of cell division and growth, it enters the differentiation stage of scale formation, and finally grows a new regenerative tail that is shorter and thicker than the original tail.
Why does the lizard's tail regenerate? It turns out that after the cells of the organism are differentiated, they form different organs, have different special functions, and become "specialists" who can only do a certain job; while many undifferentiated cells are "all-rounders" who can change their "specialties" according to the needs of the body. When the lizard's tail is injured, the "all-rounder" cells move to the injured area, working together to create a new tail.
The regenerative capacity of animals has always been the focus of biomimicry research.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > sand-proof and wear-resistant</h1>
For lizards living in the desert, the scales on the surface of the body protect the body from water loss. The body surface covered by its scales is usually a composite system consisting of the material and shape of a single scale, the arrangement of the scales, and the multi-layered structure of the skin.
The shape of the scales is diverse, mainly divided into quadrilateral, hexagonal, diamond-shaped, etc., and there are different degrees of protrusions in the middle of the scales. These scales are arranged in different ways, either abstractly as a tile arrangement and a regular hexagonal arrangement, and other arrangements can be converted from these two arrangements. The multilayered structure of the skin consists of the outer cortex, a hard shell support made up of the cuticle layer, and soft connective tissue filled in the hard shell. When the body surface is stressed, the composite structure can form a multi-directional compression condition, delay the longitudinal cracking caused by pressure, so it has a high bearing capacity, especially with excellent resistance to gas-solid two-phase flow erosion. Therefore, the coupling of morphology and structure makes the desert lizard body surface have excellent resistance to aeolian sand erosion and abrasion.
This biological "coupling phenomenon" coupling phenomenon is also the focus of industrial biomimicry research. For example, in cement production, cement grinding systems are important core components of cement production, and their wear and shedding is a major technical problem restricting cement production. By simulating the formation of a rigid-soft coupling multilayer wear-resistant structure by simulating the body surface of desert lizards, a new avenue is opened up for the preparation of grinding rollers. Through the reasonable coupling of shape, structure and material, the scientists successfully developed a new production process for multi-coupling bionic grinding rollers, which improved the wear resistance of the core components of the cement grinding system.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > cornice walking wall</h1>
Geckos can move freely on smooth mirrored walls or ceilings, and can even hang upside down on the ceiling with one foot. It can be easily attached and peeled off without leaving any traces of the surface that has been crawled. This kind of "cornice walking on the wall" is often puzzling.
The gecko strolled not on suction cups, but on two million fine hairs under each foot. Each hair is tens of microns thick, and the top is divided into hundreds of thousands of finer, curved hairs with a diameter of only a few hundred nanometers. The end of the pile extends into a flat shape, forming a tiny "scraper" with strong adhesion. These billions of scrapers look like cauliflower growing on top of the fluff, giving geckos a large area of space to attach to the wall, supporting their weight. This special adhesion is the accumulation of van der Waals forces produced by a large amount of fluff under the gecko's feet and molecules on the surface of the object. Van der Waals forces are weak electrostatic electricity produced by neutral molecules that are very close to each other. In addition, this adhesion is reversible and can easily be "stripped" and destroyed, as if the tape had been torn off.
Inspired by geckos, scientists have invented a powerful medical bandage with waterproof properties that can be widely used in surgery and wound repair. They used computer technology to simulate the sole structure of the gecko's foot, and "carved" many extremely small ravines on the surface of the bandage, which greatly enhanced the adhesion of the bandage and could be close to human tissue. In addition, bandages are made of biopolymers that are automatically biodegradable even when left in the body.
Scientists have also developed a super-bonded material called gecko skin, which is highly efficient, reversible and dry bonding. This bionic material can be widely used in our lives, such as making ultra-sticky gloves used by football and cricket goalkeepers, as well as more sturdy floor shoes and climbing equipment, making car tires that no longer slip in rain and snow, attaching televisions, computer monitors and other electronic products that can be casually attached to the wall and separated as needed. In film and television shooting, actors can really perform their stunts on the glass curtain wall of skyscrapers without using computer stunts.
Gecko robots are a research hotspot in the field of biomimicry. For example, scientists mimic the structure of the fur under the gecko's feet, using a rubber-like microform that is only 20 microns wide to make a polymer microfilament and make a adhesive coating. They are wrapped around four legs specially made for gecko robots, greatly increasing the load. Each foot has a small hand that is stable when climbing on the wall, and can easily stick or lift each foot like a gecko, walking freely on vertical planks, painted metal and glass.
This technology can be widely used in firefighting, criminal investigation, construction and other fields, for example, it can be used to create search and rescue robots that can climb steep walls and cross any terrain; it can develop wall-climbing robots for space exploration, which can walk on the outer surface of the spacecraft under any harsh conditions and perform "physical examinations" for the aircraft.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > glide through the forest</h1>
Flying lizards, commonly known as "flying dragons", live in southern China, South Asia and Southeast Asia. The wings of this flying lizard protrude from the skin on either side of the body, supported by five protruding ribs. Its ribs are removable, can extend from both sides of the body, and extend very long. The skin is pulled by these ribs, like a fan. When the flying lizard runs on the branches, its ribs are closed, but when it is going to another tree, the ribs are open so that they can open their "wings" and fly over.
Imitating flying lizards, people invented parachute suits with paragliders or parachutes. This parachute suit, also known as a jumpsuit, is very similar to the wing membrane of a flying lizard. Due to its novelty, irritation and safety, it became popular around the world in the years after its introduction. Parachute suits not only ensure the safety of athletes when they fall freely, but also extend the time they stay in the air, allowing people to experience the mood of flying and master the time on the ground. Therefore, parachutes are also a new piece of equipment that paratroopers love very much.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > treading the waves</h1>
With the exception of small animals such as water shrews and fishing spiders, most animals are too heavy or too slow to walk on water. So when people see the spotted iguana "galloping" on the water, its special ability is amazing, and it has been inexplicable for a long time, and even think that this is the "super ability" of the lizard. For this reason, it is also known as the "Superman Lizard".
The spot-crowned iguana runs on land on four legs, while on water, only two hind feet are used to alternate runs. Speeds can reach 1.5 meters per second. It can run continuously on the surface of the water for about 4.5 meters, and then the forelimbs sink into the water, becoming a swimming position. Where is the secret of the spotted iguana water walking technique? First of all, the spot-crowned iguana not only has strong hind legs and big feet, but also has the same burr edges as the "whiskers" on the toes. Beards are closed when walking on land; when flying on water, beards are open, increasing the area of contact between the feet and the water so that they don't tilt or tip over on the water.
In high-speed cameras, the spot-crowned iguana can be divided into three parts: clapping, fighting, and recovery. When it hits the surface of the water, its feet move mainly vertically; when slapping, its feet mainly move backwards; during the recovery process, its feet will be lifted off the water surface to prepare for the next action. When its feet step into the water, the submerged leg creates an air chamber that supports the body and further expands the air chamber through the expansion of the toes, which facilitates the leg to lift upwards. Before the hole can disappear, it must quickly lift its toes off the water. So, it's kind of like we're riding a bike, and if we don't pedal, it slowly stops and the people in the car roll over.
So scientists followed spotted iguanas to develop an amphibious robot that could walk on land and water. The robot is about 0.3 meters long. The entire body is made of carbon fiber and plastic. Two pairs of the same four-bar mechanism, phase shifted by 180 degrees, are driven by light, high-power motors. It can simulate the treading motion of a lizard's legs. If equipped with biochemical sensors, the amphibious robot can be used to monitor water quality; if it carries a camera, it can participate in search and rescue work.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > landed on Mars</h1>
Modern people's lives are inseparable from a variety of means of transportation. However, the wheels are ideal for driving on flat roads. When the ground is made up of loose sand or large rocks, ordinary vehicles cannot move. As a result, scientists are working on lizards that can quickly traverse the desert. For example, the "fish lizard" in the African Sahara Can swing its body alternately from head to tail, left to right, like a snake, meandering between sand dunes; the American thorn-toed lizard only lands and spins with its strong hind legs, as fast as a windmill, opening its bristle toes to push the sand faster. For lizards with more complex terrain, they usually crawl on all fours on fine sand or gravel, and can only run on two legs if necessary.
Based on this lizard's ability to adapt to a variety of difficult and complex environments, scientists have developed a C-legged six-legged robot with c-legged feet.
Its appendages are ideal for walking on rough and soft surfaces with less hard substance. The robot is 12.7 cm long and weighs 136 grams, making it ideal for search and rescue missions. In the future, it may also be selected as a Mars rover. It will be launched by rocket onto the surface of Mars, jumping over the hills or sands of Mars for environmental and scientific expeditions.