Gecko, you may have the impression of a small creature that can climb walls, or a little monster that can drop its tail. But did you know that geckos are actually very interesting creatures that have a lot of amazing traits and habits, and they can also be kept as pets? This article will unravel the mysteries of geckos for you and show you how to raise a cute little paw.
Geckos are a species of lizards that belong to the class Reptiles and have four slender legs and a long tail. Geckos usually have gray or brown bodies, and some have spots or stripes. Geckos have large eyes with vertical pupils that can be seen clearly in the dark. Geckos have small mouths and no teeth, just a layer of tooth plates that they use to bite their prey. The gecko's ** is smooth and has a lot of tiny scales that help it retain moisture and regulate its body temperature.
Geckos are widely distributed animals that can be found in tropical and temperate regions of almost the globe, and some are even able to survive in cold places. There are also many species of geckos, estimated at more than 1,500 species, some of which are extinct fossil species, and some are new species that have not yet been discovered. Geckos also vary in size, some are only a few centimeters long, while others can reach tens of centimeters in length. Geckos also have a variety of living habits, some are nocturnal, some are diurnal, some are arboreal, some are terrestrial, some are social and some are solitary.
The gecko is a very characteristic animal that has a lot of amazing abilities and behaviors. Let's introduce some of the characteristics of geckos.
One of its most striking features is the gecko's claws, which allow the gecko to crawl freely on a variety of surfaces, even vertical walls and upside-down ceilings. There are two types of claws of geckos, one is clawed and the other is clawless. A clawed gecko, like a leopard gecko, has curved claws that act like hooks and can grasp rough surfaces. A clawless gecko, like a gecko, has its claws that are flattened and act like a suction cup that can be attached to a smooth surface. How do the claws of a clawless gecko achieve adsorption? It turns out that it has a lot of tiny hair-like structures on its claws, called nanohairs, and there are many smaller structures at the end of each nanohair, called nanoplates. These nanowools and nanoplates can use van der Waals forces, the faint force of attraction between molecules, to fit tightly to any surface, resulting in a strong adsorption. This attraction is so strong that a gecko's claws can withstand forces hundreds of times its own weight. The principle of this nanohair has been used by humans to make a biomimetic material called gecko tape, which can be used to paste various objects.
The gecko's tail is also an important feature of it, which helps the gecko maintain balance, store fat, and even escape enemy attacks. The gecko's tail has a special ability to fall off on its own, a phenomenon called self-severing. When a gecko encounters danger, it can actively or passively disconnect its tail from a certain segment, and then the tail will constantly twist to attract the attention of the enemy, and the gecko will take the opportunity to escape. This self-breaking mechanism is due to the fact that the gecko's tail has some special muscles and bones that can quickly contract and separate when stimulated, thus achieving breakage. When a gecko's tail is broken, it does not bleed or become infected, and it can regenerate, but the regenerated tail is usually shorter than the original tail and varies in color and shape. Although the gecko's tail can be cut off, this is not its first choice, because the tail is very important to the gecko, it can store energy to help the gecko survive the famine, and after the tail is broken, the gecko's movement ability will also be affected, so the gecko will only use this means of self-help when it is absolutely necessary.
Another characteristic of geckos is that they can change color, but this color change is not like chameleons, which can change color and pattern at will, but is affected by temperature, light, mood and environment, resulting in some relatively small color changes. The discoloration of the gecko is mainly due to the fact that there are some special cells on it, called pigment cells, which contain pigment particles of different colors, such as black melanin, yellow adenine, red heme, etc. When the gecko is stimulated by the outside world, its nervous system and endocrine system will regulate the activity of pigment cells, so that pigment particles are distributed or aggregated in the cell, thus changing the color of **.