Lizards with Spiderman Abilities...

Ive always wondered how geckos had the ability to climb up walls and glass with no problem.  Most people think they have suction cups on their feet, or their magic...  Scientist have found that a geckos feet have around half a million of tiny hair like structures called setae.  Setae are located on the pad like structures on the toes called lamellae (Black, 16).  As seen in the picture below you can see the pad like structures, lamellae.

Setae are about 100 microns long and 10 micros in diameter.  The setae structures are branched and split and at the tips have tiny keratin discs, 200 nanometers wide.  These small discs are called spatulae which have thousands covering single tips of setae (Baumgartner, 1).  Setae are found on all kinds of different life forms. In annelids its also called chaetae which act as locomotion and acts as an adhesive.  Some crustaceans use setae as filter feeding.  One individual setae can lift 20 milligrams, each foot has half a million setae on it. Scientist found that just the two front hands can lift 45 pounds in an area covering a dime! But if they stick that well to walls, how do they move up walls with ease and peel their feet off like tape and not get stuck.  Well geckos just move there feet 30 degrees the hairs will detatch from the surface and attaches to the next surface.  Rhacodactylus and other geckos can rotate their feet by 180 degrees in order to move backwards down walls.  When climbing on ceilings they just spread their toes apart to increase better surface area and can run across the ceiling with no problem (Baumgartner, 2).   With this type of evidence it can open doors in new technology in robotics or even making us have the ability in climbing difficult areas.

Baumgartner, Henry. "Secret of the sticky foot". Mechanical Engineering 8 (2000) Web. 3. 12 April 2011.         Proquest.
Black, Adam. Crested Geckos. Neptune City: T.F.H. Publications, 2005. Print
Kaptain Kobold. Gecko Foot. 2008. Photograph. Colden Common, England. Web. 12 April 2011.
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