Tails stabilize landing of gliding geckos crashing head-first into tree trunks
3 institutional releases
Published in Communications Biology · View the paper (DOI)
Researchers found that geckos' tails act as a fifth leg to stabilize themselves on vertical surfaces, helping them land safely after colliding with trees. A gecko-inspired robot confirmed this finding, showing that the longer the tail, the lower the force pulling the back feet away from the surface.
Coverage from 3 institutions
- Geckos glide, crash-land, but don’t fall thanks to tail Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems · Sep 2, 2021 · first to report
- These geckos crash-land on rainforest trees but don't fall, thanks to their tails University of California - Berkeley · Sep 2, 2021
- 'Flying' geckos use their heads and tails to crash-land safely University of Surrey · Sep 7, 2021