The Bible tells of frogs that fall from the sky. Biologists, on the other hand, tell of lizards that fall from trees.
The biologists – William Schlesinger, Johannes Knops and Thomas Nash – recount in great detail how they discovered an unsuspected truth about lizards. Their study Lizardfall in a California Oak Woodland, published in the journal Ecology, is a blow to the reputation of a species once admired for its surefootedness. It’s the story of the reptiles’ ungraceful fall into the abyss – in this case a plastic bucket – and of the detectives who documented it.
Western fence lizards spend a lot of time in trees, walking up and down the branches. But, when running after insects or away from predators, say Schlesinger, Knops and Nash, they frequently lose their grip….
So begins this week’s Improbable Research column in The Guardian.