GECKOS POSSESS PINS

“What for?” you may ask. After all, they could hurt someone or something, or they could even be hurt by their own pins. Amazingly, the pins are too tiny, soft and flexible to even hurt anyone or anything. That is why, if you’ve ever had a wall gecko climb on you, you would never see any scar on your body. The information you are about to read reveal the very reason gecko lizards can climb and walk on almost any surface.

It was discovered that gecko lizards possess extremely tiny hairs under each of their feet. These hairs rise and flatten, and can be detached easily from surfaces because of the direction, or angle, in which they grow.

These hair-like pins, more appropriately called setae, also have several smaller parts on each of them, making them look like ceiling brooms. 

The tinier hairs, which are more of fiber, are called spatulae. The setae are made of keratin_ the same material human fingers are made of.

Due to their structure, size, mass number and the material with which they are made, these setae and spatulae apply Van de Waal’s forces to hold a wall gecko firmly to any surface that they climb.

Van de Waal’s forces are weak magnetic or joining forces that work very effectively in small spaces.

The hairs from geckos also protrude and retract at speed faster than the human eye can follow. As such, gecko lizards can stick almost immediately to any surface that they jump to, significantly surfaces that put them against gravity, like vertical surfaces or on any surface that would make them stay upside down, for example a ceiling. But when in a different position, the pins retract.

Thus, the protrusion and retraction of the gecko’s pins are reflex actions.

But do you know that are at least two kinds of surface that gecko lizards cannot stick to? Please look out for the next post for updates on this.