autotomize

After declawing, the animal is released and the practice of manual declawing is defended because crabs may naturally autotomize a claw or walking leg, for example, when grasped by a potential predator, and then regenerate the lost limb (Juanes & Smith 1995).

Supporting Arnold's (1984, 1988) suggestion that the usefulness of autotomy may vary with body size, larger Asterias rubens starfish take longer to autotomize an arm, which is correlated with increased mechanical toughness, in itself an antipredator defense (Marrs et al.

Ophiuroids can autotomize arms and the aboral portion of the disc (Litvinova and Zharkova, 1977; Dobson, 1985; Dobson and Turner, 1989; Charlina et al., 2009; Frolova and Dolmatov, 2010).

unlike some species of lizards, zebra-tailed lizards do not autotomize their tails.

We did not allow wounds to heal or a longer acclimation period because damselflies autotomize injured lamellae within 20 min (M.

The trauma of forced removal of even one claw can stimulate the crabs to autotomize the second claw, or one or more legs, and declawed ovigerous females can cast off their eggs.

Although damage to the radial nerve did not cause the sea stars' arm to autotomize, it did render the arm nonfunctional for several days, which likely reduces the foraging ability of the sea star (Bingham et al.

Octopuses, in general, move fast or slow with at least 13 postures, and the forward swimming observed here is referred to as "dorsoventrally compressed" swimming, and may provide several advantages (Huffard, 2007): (i) faster and more efficient swimming, due to lift, compared to other forms of swimming; (ii) allowing an octopuses' eyes to be directed forward while foraging; (iii) more easily exposing arms, which can be regenerated, to predation instead of the more vulnerable body (at least two of the four species known to contour swim can autotomize their arms, Norman and Hochberg, 2005; Huffard, 2007); and (iv) keeping the individual close to the substrate so that it can quickly stop and camouflage itself, find shelter, or bury itself into the sand should a predator be detected.

Cerata were removed from the anterior region in the first or second ceratal cluster by using forceps combined with the animals' propensity to autotomize these projections.