Newfound Gecko Species Jumps Out of Its Own Skin
Newfound Gecko Species Jumps Out of Its Own Skin
By Mindy Weisberger, Senior Writer | February 7, 2017 01:18pm ET
A newly discovered species of gecko with unusually large scales practices a bizarre defensive strategy that might make your skin crawl: When a predator catches hold, the gecko literally jumps out of its own skin.
The species, Geckolepis megalepis, was described recently in a new study. Part of a small group known as fish-scale geckos, these creatures have scales that are larger than those of any known gecko species, the researchers said.
Each scale can be as large as 0.2 inches (5.8 millimeters) — about 8 percent of the gecko's body length — and those big scales could make the gecko especially adept at escaping predators, according to the new study.
Whereas most geckos have small scales that lie flat against their bodies, fish-scale geckos have large, overlapping scales that are only partly attached to their skin. But what is really unusual about this genus of geckos is the layer of skin beneath those scales, which tears away easily and grows back quickly, according to the study's lead author, Mark Scherz, a doctoral candidate at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Zoologische Staatssammlung München (the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology).
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Long live geckos!
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