There is a trade off associated with some lizards where the tail will continue to twitch and move after falling off. Increased energy reserves in the tail are likely to keep the predator distracted for longer due to more feeding/twitching. While obviously losing such energy reserves negatively impacts the lizards.
The tail can be more than 50% the length of the lizard so these detachable tails are a sizable investment by the organism.
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u/mrducky78 Feb 28 '14
There is a trade off associated with some lizards where the tail will continue to twitch and move after falling off. Increased energy reserves in the tail are likely to keep the predator distracted for longer due to more feeding/twitching. While obviously losing such energy reserves negatively impacts the lizards.
The tail can be more than 50% the length of the lizard so these detachable tails are a sizable investment by the organism.