Lizard using inversion to escape predators.

As we learned in class, some lizards will "run off" the end of a branch in the escape of a predator. Instead of jumping off, some will grasp the limb with their hind legs and swing under the branch. I found this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP-v1z2prg8 which shows a research project that some students at UC Berkeley did. For the actual experiment, they used cockroaches, but the video does have a slo-mo version of the lizard also performing this daring escape. As you can see in the video, both the lizard and cockroach "run off" the end of the branch, but in the very last instant, the rear claws grasp the edge and allow the animal to swing to the underside of the branch; hopefully this would allow a successful escape for them. In the experiment, the researchers removed the claws from the hind limbs of the cockroaches. This meant as the cockroach went to grasp the branch with its hind limbs, it instead falls off the end of the branch. One could assume that since lizards use the same methods as the cockroach, the removal of hind claws from a lizard would end in the same result.