Zebra-tailed lizard running fast

Many species of lizards are built like little dragsters. They can accelerate very quickly from a standstill and reach high speed, but they can't sustain high speed very long. Dr. Bruce Jayne of the University of Cincinnati (Ohio, USA) shot this high-speed (250 images per second) video of a zebra-tailed lizard running on a treadmill while performing experiments to understand better how variation in the morphology and behavior of lizards affects running speed. This species of lizard has very large feet, and when it runs faster it extends the ankle, which gives it a greater effective limb length that enhances running speed. Somewhat unexpectedly, the maximum running speeds of this and some closely related lizards differed little between bipedal and quadrupedal running. In this video the lizard, which had a body length of only about 10 cm, had spurts of speed greater than 5.3 meters per second (more than 50 body lengths per second!!).

For more information read:
Irschick, D.J. & B.C. Jayne. (1999). A comparative analysis of three-dimensional kinematics of the hindlimb for high-speed bipedal and quadrupedal locomotion in lizards. J. Exp. Biol. 202: 1047-1065.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• wildlife
• reptile
• lizard
• running
• bipedal
• locmotion
• Mojave
• desert
• animal
• behavior

[andyoconnor83]

5.3 m/s is almost 12mph. The black spiny tailed iguana has been clocked at over 21mph, the six-lined racerunner is the fastest lizard in the U.S. (native anyways) at over 18mph

[dkguydkguy]

how many mph is 5.3 meters per second

[Legohood]

holy shit! hes flying

[snipesnrifles]

@CookiefaceKillah black spiney tailed iguana is or the common baskilisk

[CookiefaceKillah]

thank you for the great video, very informative. I have a question. Is the Zebra-tailed Lizard the fastest lizard in the world?

[jedihunter176]

Wow, at the end it starts running bipedally, and then almost flying!

[billsta05]

cool. Try running the experiment with tail autotomised zebra-tailed lizards. I expect you will find that it will run slower as it is a bipedal runner at top speeds and needs it tail for counter-balance. Hope to see a paper about it in a year or so :)