If you see the Basilisk lizard two things comes to mind, it looks like a lizard and it looks like a dragon. While this lizards physical appearance still amazes you, you might be shocked to see it walk on water with swift speed and precision. This ability looks to defy the law of gravity and locomotion.
Depending on the species of the Basilisk lizard you see, they can come in colors of leaves, backs of trees, and they are able to blend with their environment. Also, they can lay motionless in a spot so as to escape predators like birds and snakes but when they notice a threat, they trust their hind limb to take them as fast as possible as it and when in water, its legs propel so quickly that it propels the lizard about 15ft above the water and can cover a length in seconds.
It isn't like it is scared of water is why it runs above the water. Once the lizard has moved far away from its threat, it sinks into the water, preventing it from being seen by its predator. The Basilisk lizard is nicknamed the Jesus Christ Lizard. Belonging to the Casquehead lizard family and because of the crown-like structure on their head, it earned the scientific name Basiliscus which mean small king.
Basilisk lizards are of the linage of Iguania with suborders of over 2000 lizards including iguanas, chameleons, agamids, and so on but amongst the species, it is the only lizard that can walk on water. It might have come from an ancient ancestor known as Babibasiliscus alxi which lived some 48 million years ago but scientists are not able to prove if it could walk on water.
Basilisk lizard is not the only animal that walks on water, there are a lot of them and they all use different mechanisms to stay afloat such as in the case of the Water Strider that uses its widespread long legs with waterproof hairs to stay afloat on water. Basilisk lizard's hind leg uses a sort of bicycling piston fashion which can be divided into three different phases which are Slap, Stoke, and Recovery where the lizard first slaps the water to create air that prevents it from sinking, then it strokes to propel itself forward which breaks the air bubble but before it does, it removes its leg and does it again.
Not all Basilisk lizards are able to do the walking on water perfectly. Scientist found out that smaller lizards are able to walk on water well compared to adult ones which indicates that size matters in this act. They all are able to walk on water but how they walk differ based on size as the smaller ones are able to move higher while the older and bigger ones have to carry themselves out of the water.
Is there a chance for humans to walk on water even when we use flippers? Scientists have done their research and they have seen that it is going to be difficult for human to be able to walk on water even with flippers as we will need to run at a speed of 30m/s on 1m2 fin which means it is literally impossible.
https://animalia.bio/common-basilisk
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/veterinary-science-and-veterinary-medicine/iguanidae
https://www.zmescience.com/science/geology/jesus-lizard-ancestor-wyoming-05423534
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Running-on-water-in-Basilisk-lizard
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/news-jesus-lizards-basilisks-walk-water
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0127900
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1463-6409.2005.00208.x
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8594397
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0037300
https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/199/12/2611
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.0405736101
Sending Love and Ecency Curation Vote!
Follow Eceny's curation trail to earn better APR on your own HP. : )
Thanks for your contribution to the STEMsocial community. Feel free to join us on discord to get to know the rest of us!
Please consider delegating to the @stemsocial account (85% of the curation rewards are returned).
Thanks for including @stemsocial as a beneficiary, which gives you stronger support.