Observation: The first act of lizard breathing underwater.

A river lizard in Costa Rica recently demonstrated a previously unknown ability of lizards. Lizards can't breathe underwater, can they? The puffer fish recently filmed in Costa Rica.

The lens shows that this species -Anolis oxyphyllus- has very unusual abilities. These lizards breathe stored oxygen underwater, which is unprecedented among lizards.

Biologists and filmmakers Neil Losin and Nate Dappen captured this amazing behavior while filming the lizard-centered documentary The Lizard Rule for the Smithsonian Channel. The Costa Rican river lizard is famous for disappearing underwater for a few minutes at a time, but scientists believe that this elusive reptile is very good at holding its breath. However, it turns out that this is very strange, because Losin and Dappen found a previously unknown behavior in the group. [In Florida, strange lizards jump out of the ground]

For more than a year, filmmakers have traveled all over the world to shoot The Lizard Rule, which tells the surprising and complicated story of the lizard colony anoles found in tropical America. In an interview with Science Scene, Losin said that tailless lizards are small and colorful, and they also live in different habitats, from the rainforest to the backyard in the suburbs.

Although these lizards look ordinary and boring, scientists are very interested in them and have published thousands of research reports on tailless lizards in the past 50 years. Da Peng explained that due to the in-depth study of chameleon, scientists have the opportunity to ask very subtle questions about the evolution, biology and behavior of chameleon.

One of the deep diving questions is about anole in Costa Rica River and what happened after they jumped into the water. The rest lasted 15 minutes. Luke Mahler, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto, urged filmmakers to watch their underwater shots carefully when filming Arnold to see if they could find any clues to explain what the Anders River was doing.

Dappen and Losin didn't see anything unusual when they first watched the video. After returning to America, they watched the video more carefully. Just then, they noticed some unusual phenomena.

"We have seen this breathing behavior, which has not been recorded or described before," Losin said.

Anole in the river captured in the video recovers the stored oxygen, and the growth and contraction of bubbles can be seen on its head. The observations (Smithsonian Channel) are shocking. When a female Anopheles dived into the water and squatted at the bottom of the river for nearly 10 minutes, a tiny bubble repeatedly expanded and contracted on her head. This lizard seems to be circulating her air, just like a human diver sucks oxygen from a water tank.

It is speculated that breathing the stored air again will make the puffer fish stay underwater long enough to resist the threat on land, Dapeng explained. It is understood that some invertebrates, such as diving bell spiders and diving beetles, will have air hiding places, but this may be the only example of vertebrate terrestrial animals breathing again, Losin said.

How the puffer fish accomplished this feat is uncertain, but * * * and his colleagues are currently studying the mechanism of this behavior. Losin told Life Science:

"This proves the problem that biologists often find, that is, we know very little about nature," Dapeng said.

By showing this tailless species and its many close relatives in the United States, The Lizard Law may help the audience finally understand why scientists think these lizards are so special.

"I want people to come out of the movies and see even the most common-looking creatures behind them." Losin said: "These codes can be the font of scientific knowledge-if someone is willing to take the time to read them." .

Lizard Law 65438+ was broadcast on the Smithsonian Channel at 8 pm (local time) on February 26th.

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