LEAPING LIZARDS By filming Agama lizards like this one as they leap, researchers were able to calculate how the critters use their tails to control their movement as they fly through the air. Some small dinosaurs may have used the same physics when leaping. Thomas Libby, Evan Chang-Siu, Pauline Jennings; courtesy of PolyPEDAL Lab, CiBER/UC Berkeley
The animators of Jurassic Park were right on in their depiction of Velociraptor aeronautics: A leaping lizard uses its tail to correct ungainly maneuvers, akin to a tightrope walker with a balancing pole.
Log in
Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.
