This is perhaps because any injury between the tip of the meropodite and the point of autotomy invariably causes a breakage at the latter point. |
Most investigation into such an antipredatory benefit has focused on caudal autotomy in vertebrate taxa. |
The division of a protozoan into two cells and the splitting of a worm into two halves may be regarded as cases of autotomy. |
Through a process called autotomy, muscles can contract violently along the base of an appendage, breaking off the limb. |
The nerve, however, is severed at the preformed autotomy breakage plane and the nerve stub retracts into the coxal stump. |
I could not assess at what point during the predation encounters the lizards employed autotomy. |