The Australian thorny
devil lizard (Moloch horridus) extract moisture from log, humidity, and wet
sand. Then it channels the water to its mouth for drinking. How? The answer may
lie in the lizard’s amazing skin.
The thorny devil’s skin
is overlaid with scales. Some scientist think that the moisture or dew
collected on the scales runs down to the rough surface of the skin and enters
the skin’s network of half-open channels, or grooves, located between the
scales. These channels are interconnected and lead to the sides of thorny
devil’s mouth.
But how does this
lizard draw up water---up its legs, across its body, and into its mouth---defying
gravity in the process? And how does the thorny devil extract moisture from wet
surfaces by rubbing its belly against them.
Researchers have
apparently unveiled the thorny devil’s secret. The channels on the surface of
the skin are connected by way of ducts to another network of channels below,
that is, within the lizard’s skin. The structure of these channels enables
capillary action----a phenomenon in which water is drawn into narrow spaces
even against the force of gravity. The Lizard’s skin thus acts as a sponge.
Janine Benyus,
president of the Biomimicry Institute, says that mimicry moisture ---extracting
technologies may help engineers design a system to remove humidity from air in
order to cool building more efficiently and also to obtain drinking water.
Did the
moisture---extracting skin of the thorny devil come about by evolution?
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