Greg...
I agree with your last statement, but I don't agree with the back having
thermal-pain receptors while the belly doesn't. I have treated several
chameleons that were allowed to bask too close to a heat lamp and
developed 3rd degree burns. I just think they never developed a need
because the sun isn't ever going to get as hot as an improperly set up
basking lamp.
Greg Watkins-Colwell wrote:
>
> on 2/9/01 4:56 PM, Steven Groginsky at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> > I thought they might fall asleep and get burned while they're asleep, which
> > might be possible.
>
> I seem to recall something about pain receptors in reptiles being different
> as well as thermal receptors. I may have it mixed up, but I think that the
> belly does not have thermal-pain receptors (but the back does... so they
> know when to stop basking!) and that what happens is the lizard perceives a
> hot rock as warm... but doesn't detect pain associated with the heat.
> Unlike us. We have pain receptors for dull pain... sharp pain and when
> extremes of temperature occur it triggers a different kind of pain that may
> actually include "sharp". Reptiles seem to have reduced pain receptors,
> especially in the area of sharp pain or thermally-induced pain (which may be
> why many of them can lose their tails without going into pain-induced
> shock... or have digits or entire limbs bitten off and seem essentially okay
> with the idea). I once had a box turtle brought to me that had been hit by
> a lawn-mower... a 2 inch x .5 inch hole was chopped in the carapace and
> lungs and other internal organs were clearly visible and completely
> unprotected by any skin or bony shell. After an hour of cleaning the fly
> eggs out of the wound... the turtle ATE a full meal. I've heard of similar
> stories that involved amputations and yet the animal ate within hours of the
> trauma and seemed otherwise normal. Point is... reptiles seem to not detect
> pain the same way a mammal would.
>
> Greg
>
> --
> Gregory J. Watkins-Colwell
> Dept. of Biology
> Sacred Heart University
> 5151 Park Avenue
> Fairfield, CT 06432
>
> and
>
> Yale Peabody Museum
> Dept. of Vertebrate Zoology
> 170 Whitney Ave
> PO Box 208118
> New Haven, CT 06520-8118
>
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--
Doug Johnston
www.ncal.verio.com/~scubadug
