Physiological functionalities of natural body armour: insights from reptiles and amphibians.

A great diversity in natural body armour has been developed by nature throughout millions of years of evolution. Body armour in animals has served as inspiration for artificial armour since ancient times and continues to be the focus of a growing number of biomimetic studies that explore its protective nature. Unfortunately, the majority of these studies often unambiguously assume that the morphological diversity in natural body armour is the resultant of an evolutionary predator-prey arms-race. Although a protective role is easily imagined, recent studies suggest that body armour is not optimised to perform a single protective function, but rather represents a multifunctional structure, shaped by trade-offs. The proposed research delves into the topic of armour multifunctionality by being the first to experimentally investigate its potential physiological role (i.e., during thermoregulation and in the prevention of water loss). For this purpose, two highly promising model systems will be used: girdled lizards and horned frogs. Thermal imaging technology and evaporimetry will be employed to measure the physiological characteristics of dermal armour and will be supplemented with cutting-edge microangio-CT to characterize the underlying vascular mechanism. The study combines form and function of natural body armour, while benefiting from state-of-the-art technology, and might ultimately serve as a source of bio-inspiration for artificial multifunctional protective materials.

Keywords:BIODIVERSITY

Disciplines:Animal ecology