Apr 27, 2018
Recently, a paper was published describing multiple specimens of Captorhinus, that show signs of a last ditch defense we see in some modern lizards; tail dropping. Unless you’re like my crested gecko, who showed up without a tail one day which never grew back, most lizards that practice this behavior are capable of regrowing their tails. But it generally isn’t perfect, and random mutations happen from time to time that lead to forked tails, or even in some isolated cases, a lizard having three tails! I explored that here with Captorhinus. Captorhinus and its relatives are reptiles that evolved before the lepidosaur, but I based his little hand wave off modern lizards.