The Amazing TOKAY GECKO
Using an electron microscope, researchers have discovered amazing things about this small tropical lizard.

Each of its 4 feet have 5 toes.

Each TOE has fine hairs 1/10 of a mm long, packed at 5,000 hairs per sq mm (3,000,000 per sq inch).

EACH HAIR has 400 to 1,000 branches that end in a spatula-like structure about 1/50,000 inch long.

Each foot pad can produce 10 Newtons of adhesive force.
However, each hair has an attractive force 10x stronger than expected.

Modern technology cannot even come close to designing such an incredible structure.
Humans cannot create a material that can be split so finely & packed so tightly.

Each hair is strong enough to support an ant's weight.
One million hairs can support a small child.
The attractive force increases when the hairs are gently pressed into the walking surface.
So the gecko has plenty of attractive force to spare.

The gecko uses surprising little effort when it walks. How? Via unusually complex motions of:
- uncurling its toes to stick
- unpeeling its toes while detaching. The hairs release their grip at an angle of about 30 degrees.

And, how about this amazing fact? The gecko's feet are self-cleaning!!!
Scientists don't know how they keep such fine hairs, clog-free.
(Perhaps the gecko vibrates each hair, 10x the speed of light, to knock of any dirt particles. :-)

--

How does this small tropical lizard walk UPSIDE DOWN, on a polished glass surface?

Here's the (rewritten) answer, according to Jonathan Sarfati.

Glue No, because it does NOT have skin glands that produce glue.
Friction No, because its skin contains the slippery, keratin protein.
Suction No, because its feet can stick in a vacuum (where there is no air pressure).
Electrostatic Attraction No, its feet stick even when the surrounding air is zapped by x-rays (causing any charge to leak away).
van der Waals forces Most likely answer, but scientists are not sure.
They surmise that the tiny foot hairs interlock with "rough" spaces between molecules.

How is it possible for chance mutation & natural selection to even get as far as halfway
to achieving the complexity, delicateness, & perfect movement to stick & unstick; & then top it off with a self-cleaning feature?

How could evolutionary forces propel these gecko to develop foot hairs (on all 4 feet!!!)
that keep going & going & going to this extreme?

Credit for such an amazing "feat" MUST be given to the Creator (not environmental pressures).


Click here for a chart of interesting LINKS & tons of RESEARCH.

Email me if you feel I've made any errors, or misrepresented Watchtower teaching in any way.
I will make corrections immediately.
There are no unanswered emails, so the reader can be assured that what I've written is fair, accurate, truthful, correct (& irrefutable).

© 1999 - 2009 ~ All rights reserved, but non-commercial use is OK with me ~ etalk99@hotmail.com

1