Geckos Use Tail for Acrobatics

While this natural navigational system prevents falls, the lizards do topple from time to time. The researchers prompted such falling by creating an impossible-to-traverse fake leaf. Even then, the gecko tail whipped into action.

Experiments videotaped in a wind tunnel showed that the gecko tail, which constitutes about 10 percent of the lizard's full body weight, whipped around clockwise to turn the lizard right side up. In slow motion, the movement looks like a graceful Olympic diver executing a mid-air twist.

Once the rotation is complete, the lizard spreads its legs and toes to parachute. Geckos will even sometimes glide, if necessary, using their tails to steer their bodies to desired landing spots.

Kellar Autumn, associate professor in the Department of Biology at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oreg. also studies geckos.

"This is just the coolest study," Autumn told Discovery News. "It took me by surprise, especially the findings about gecko gliding. That was a complete shocker."

He explained that most biologists previously thought the primary role of the gecko tail was to allow for fat storage.

"It took an interdisciplinary team to figure gecko tails out," Autumn said. "The study shows us how basic research can begin with relatively simple questions, such as how does a gecko avoid falling, before cascading into so many other significant findings with numerous application possibilities."

In addition to the astronaut tail idea, another application is already in the works. Full and colleagues are helping engineers create gecko-like robots. Stanford University researchers, for example, have constructed Spinybot and Stickybot.

Full said, "It is our goal to inspire the design of the most effective search-and-rescue robot ever built, one that can assist disaster rescue teams assisting in earthquakes, aid firefighters searching for trapped victims and sense chemical, biological and nuclear hazards before they cause harm."

Related Links:

Jennifer Viegas' blog: Born Animal

Ardian Jusufi at the University of California at Berkeley

Global Gecko Association

Spinybot