Tails stabilize landing of gliding geckos crashing head-first into tree trunks.
Journal
Communications biology
ISSN: 2399-3642
Titre abrégé: Commun Biol
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101719179
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
02 09 2021
02 09 2021
Historique:
received:
18
11
2020
accepted:
21
06
2021
entrez:
3
9
2021
pubmed:
4
9
2021
medline:
15
12
2021
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Animals use diverse solutions to land on vertical surfaces. Here we show the unique landing of the gliding gecko, Hemidactylus platyurus. Our high-speed video footage in the Southeast Asian rainforest capturing the first recorded, subcritical, short-range glides revealed that geckos did not markedly decrease velocity prior to impact. Unlike specialized gliders, geckos crashed head-first with the tree trunk at 6.0 ± 0.9 m/s (~140 body lengths per second) followed by an enormous pitchback of their head and torso 103 ± 34° away from the tree trunk anchored by only their hind limbs and tail. A dynamic mathematical model pointed to the utility of tails for the fall arresting response (FAR) upon landing. We tested predictions by measuring foot forces during landing of a soft, robotic physical model with an active tail reflex triggered by forefoot contact. As in wild animals, greater landing success was found for tailed robots. Experiments showed that longer tails with an active tail reflex resulted in the lower adhesive foot forces necessary for stabilizing successful landings, with a tail shortened to 25% requiring over twice the adhesive foot force.
Identifiants
pubmed: 34475510
doi: 10.1038/s42003-021-02378-6
pii: 10.1038/s42003-021-02378-6
pmc: PMC8413312
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
1020Informations de copyright
© 2021. The Author(s).
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