Juvenile bearded dragon (Pogona vitticeps) feeding on an ant. The Prey capture behavior is typical o figuanian lizards and takes approximately 275 milliseconds. Upon ingestion of the ant prey, P. vitticeps chews the prey extensively before swallowing, increasing the time processing the prey and the overall time needed to consume a single prey item. On average a single feeding event takes 2100 ms. This movie was filmed at 250 frames s-1 and plays at about 1/15 real time. (11mb) PLAY MOVIE
Female fringe-toed lizard (Uma notata) feeding on an ant. The prey capture behavior is typical of iguanian lizards but faster than P. vitticeps, taking on average only 200 ms. Upon ingestion of the prey item U. notata, like P. vitticeps, chews the prey extensively before swallowing, increasing the time processing the prey and overall time necessary to complete a single feeding event. On average a single feeding event takes 1300 ms, more than 3 times slower than P. platyrhinos or M.horridus. The movie was filmed at 250 fps and plays at about 1/15 real time. (7mb) PLAY MOVIE
Desert horned lizard (Phrynosoma platyrhinos) feeding on a harvester ant (Pogonomyrmex). The duration of prey capture is only slightly faster than Pogona vitticeps, taking place in approximately 250 milliseconds. However, the most striking difference is the complete lack of processing behavior upon ingestion of the prey item. The lack of prey processing drastically reduces overall feeding time and allows a feeding event to occur in only 410 milliseconds (3 times faster than P. vitticeps). The movie was filmed at 250 frames s-1 and plays at about 1/15 real time. (8mb) PLAY MOVIE
The Australian thorny devil (Moloch horridus) catching ant prey. A single prey capture event can occur in less than 100 milliseconds. While
capture is nearly 3 times faster than Phrynosoma platyrhinos, the quick processing movements that occur after ingestion make the overall feeding sequence
similar in duration (350 milliseconds) to P. platyrhinos.
Note the pointy shape of the tongue, this is atypical of lizards using
the tongue to capture prey and actually resembles an iguanian tongue
flick during chemoreceptive behavior. The animal was filmed at 250
frames s-1 movie plays at about 1/15 realtime. (8.5mb) PLAY MOVIE
The Australian thorny devil (Moloch horridus) feeding on small black ants (Iridiomyrmex). Note the long, mobile neck allowing the animal to move the head toward the prey item without moving the whole body (compare to the lunging behavior of Pogona vitticeps and Phrynosoma platyrhinos). This movie was filmed at 25 frames s-1 and is played at real time. (3 mb) PLAY MOVIE
A veiled chameleon (Chamaeleo calyptratus) projecting the tongue 13cm to capture a cricket. At first the tongue is protracted slowly out of the mouth on the hyoid, once the lizard decides to catch the prey the tongue moves rapidly forward and projects of the hyoid elements. Upon prey contact, the muscles in the tongue retract and pull the prey item into the tongue pouch. Tongue retraction is accomplished via supercontracting muscles (unique musculature in vertebrates but more common in invertebrates). (9 mb) PLAY MOVIE
This is a short clip of a male ornate tree lizard (Urosaurus ornatus) exhibiting undirected display (not displaying to a particular animal) while patrolling his territory. Note that during the display the animal laterally compresses the body to expose both the blue belly patches and the slightly extendable dewlap patch. (2mb) PLAY MOVIE