Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I would really like to get information on the snow-cone muscle structure of the PTS tail. This is a very interesting subject and I would really like to know more about it. Does anyone have any pictures of this structure? I remember Brain had mentioned a Dr. Zippel at Cornell who had done a study of this subject, but I was unable to located it. I would really appreciate any help you can offer. Thanks, Josh

The article Brian was refering to is by Kevin Zippel, Richard Glor and John Bertram, called "On caudal prehensility and phylogenetic constraint in lizards: The influence of ancestral anatomy on function in Corucia and Furcifer" It was published in the Journal of Morphology 239:143-155.

Basically Dr. Zippel and his colleagues compared the anatomy of tail musculature in two lizard species (Panther Chameleons and PTS) and discussed how their ancestry influenced the morphology. I'll assume you care very little about ancestry, but if you care a lot I'll let Brian explain it, as he's good at that.

Here's the gist of what they had to say about PTS tail morphology:

Imagine stacks of waffle cones arranged in a circle around a piece of chain. Each waffle cone is connected by rope the other waffle cones in its stack. Each stack of wafle cones is connected by rope to the other stack and all of the stacks are connected to the chain. Now imagine that one stack of cones is compressed on one side and curves away from the chain. All of the other stacks will also curve in the same direction, pulling the chain with them, since they're all connected.

This is basically how the musculature in a PTS tail works. The chain would be the spinal column, the ropes are tendons and each cone is a bundle of muscles.

I hope that's clear.

-Z

Of course I *meant* to say that all the cones are connected *to* other cones in their stack.

I also meant to spell waffle correctly.

It must be my bedtime.

-Z

Nope, nothing here

Nope nothing here still

Zeteki,
Thank you for your help. Your description was very detailed. I now understand better the anatomy of the PTS tail. Thank you agian, Josh

LEEWAY CORUCIA RESEARCH CENTER (LCRC)

Hi,

Just to add if you haven't read about this topic by now, Robotics Engineers may base Robotic appendage designs based on Corucia rather than the Human anatomy. The reason? The snow cone structure of the Corucian tail is omnidirectional and is such that one part of the tail can remain rigid or rotate in a different direction than a different part.

Sincerely,
Brian
LCRC