Ellura Sanctuary: Cold-Blooded

Gecko Feet

Southern Rock Dtella

Retired Professor of Anatomy, Ian Gibbins, has kindly shared his thoughts with us to help people learn:

The way gecko's feet attach to smooth surfaces has been intensively studied for many years. The soles of the feet, especially the toes, are covered in microscopic hair-like protrusions that end in little caps. The caps effectively adhere to surfaces by electrostatic forces - these are physical effects occurring at a subatomic level. The flexibility of the feet / toes as well as these underlying hairs allows the geckos to attach to just about any surface, eg rock faces, bark, leaves, etc. They can pull off the surface by changing the angles of their feet. Each species of gecko has a different set-up of these hairs. Here's a link: Electron Microscope View of Gecko Feet
Ian Gibbins

Reptile Temperature Control

Eastern Bearded Dragon

Retired Professor of Anatomy, Ian Gibbins, has kindly shared his thoughts with us to help people learn:

They are able to redistribute their blood to the skin that's against the rock surface if that is warmer than the air to maximise heat uptake. They do this by constricting the vessels to the skin on the back and dilating the ones on their belly using nerves that are equivalent to, and work the same way, the ones we use control blood flow to our skin (one of the many things we used to work on... ).
As I recall their preferred body temperature = blood temperature is in the mid 30s = not much different to ours.

Ian Gibbins

Reptile Tongues

Shingleback

Retired Professor of Anatomy, Ian Gibbins, has kindly shared his thoughts with us to help people learn:

Goannas use their tongue tips to sample their chemical environment (air, substrate, etc). The tongue tips take the sample to small organs on the roof of the mouth where they are "tasted". Snakes do something similar. We do too in strange sort of way. Most of what we "taste", we actually smell, with the chewing / mashing of food by our teeth and tongue releasing volatile chemicals that reach the upper part of our nose via the back of our throat. This part of the nose is probably evolutionary related to the same structures that the goanna use.

Ian Gibbins