Meeting Abstract
Hundreds of studies have examined gecko adhesion in hopes of informing synthetic fibrillar adhesive design. Fibrillar adhesion, however, has convergently evolved in two other lineages of lizards (anoles and skinks), but comparatively fewer studies have investigated their adhesive pad morphology, function, and properties. This is particularly unexpected for Anolis lizards because they are considered to be model organisms for evolutionary ecology, and have been the subject of intensive biological study for several decades. Gecko ecology is relatively cryptic and understudied, but the vast literature detailing the relationships between Anolis morphology and habitat use may illuminate ecomorphological hypotheses for geckos. The adhesive setal field configuration has been described for several gecko species, and it appears that setal characters vary predictably along the proximodistal axis of their adhesive pads. Anolis setal field configuration remains largely unexplored and the only data available pertain to reports of the gross dimensions of a single seta. In this study, we examined setal morphology and setal field configuration of Anolis equestris and compared these data to those currently available for geckos. Overall, we found that the proximodistal variation in setal characters of A. equestris differs considerably from that of geckos, suggesting that setal form may be related to differences in peeling behavior. Our findings not only add to the existing comparative literature on the morphometrics and patterning of fibrillar adhesive systems, but also introduce Anolis lizards as an additional source of inspiration for bio-inspired synthetic adhesives.
