> Date: Mon, 1 Jan 2001 10:54:09 -0500
> From: Lyle Puente <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> Some one noted Phelsuma employing the rapid jack hammer smashing of prey to
> kill it. Chondrodactylus do this too. I watched a female dispatch a small
> snake with this method. I have noticed some large geckos bite and hold,
> presumably until the prey has expired. Has anyone else noticed other
> methods?
Leopard geckos seem to use their tongues to manipulate the insect
around in their mouths so they can more effectively use their
teeth on it. It looks like they are repeatedly perforating
or crushing it even if it isn't completely dead as it is swallowed.
Lizards have 'kinetic skulls', i.e. the skull bones aren't fused into
a rigid structure like in mammals and birds, and you can see the whole
head flex when they bite. I think it's kind of cute the way the leos
squint their eyes shut when they really chomp down hard.
Speaking of kinetic skulls, I just moved some young leos into a new
plastic box with a ventilation panel in the lid made of 1/2" square
wire mesh. Since the panel is in the lid, and the geckos' heads were
at least 20% wider than the holes, I was horrified when one of them
did a sort of slow backflip from the top of the humidity box out over
empty space to get all four feet onto the wire and then proceeded to
flex its little kinetic skull right through! I just waited there, not
sure whether to stick around and grab it when it got all the way through
or run for the wire cutters, but after pulling one arm through too, it
changed its mind and backed down. At one point it was hanging by the
base of the jaws for a couple of seconds, but quickly dropped down and
appears no worse for the experience. In future I'll be more conservative
about the gymnastic abilities of these geckos, and the size of the hole
they can squeeze through!
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