Characterization of the microscopic tribological properties of sandfish (Scincus scincus) scales by atomic force microscopy

• Weibin Wu,
• Christian Lutz,
• Simon Mersch,
• Richard Thelen,
• Christian Greiner,
• Guillaume Gomard and
• Hendrik Hölscher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2618–2627, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.243

• that the tribological properties of sandfish scales on the microscale are not exceptional if compared to snake scales or technical surfaces such as aluminium, Teflon, or highly oriented pyrolytic graphite. Keywords: biotribology; frictional properties of reptile scales; sandfish; Scincus scincus

• ; Introduction Areas with loose, aeolian sand in the deserts of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula are the habitat of the lizard Scincus scincus [1] (see Figure 1a). It hides from predators by burying in sand within seconds. This defence strategy is also known from other reptiles [1]. S. scincus, however, is

Moisture harvesting and water transport through specialized micro-structures on the integument of lizards

• Philipp Comanns,
• Christian Effertz,
• Florian Hischen,
• Konrad Staudt,
• Wolfgang Böhme and
• Werner Baumgartner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 204–214, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.24

• integument of lizards that do perform moisture harvesting, the droplet hardly spreads as shown in Figure 3D for a specimen of the so called sandfish (Scincus scincus). Although the velocity of the water spreading varies slightly throughout the body, we found absolutely no correlation of the wetting behaviour

• use of a micro manipulator. While on the non-moisture harvesting lizard Scincus scincus the droplet hardly changes over time, an almost immediate spreading of the droplet on the moisture harvesting animals, i.e., Moloch horridus, Phrynocephalus arabicus and Phrynosoma cornutum can be seen. The images

• surfaces allow for more condensation when compared with unstructured ones. Even an unspecific roughness introduced by polishing paper (roughness, Ra ≈ 3 µm) increased the amount of water, although not significantly (p = 0.070). The replica of a non-moisture harvesting lizard Scincus scincus exhibits no