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From: Philip Wylie <pjwylie_at_planet.eon.net> subject: [Paddlewise] Paddle Technique and the Amazing Lizard Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 10:10:10 -0600 · This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:32:48 PDT

This is an interesting article which I just read and made me ponder
if someone could possibly  engineer a paddle and the technique
to accomplish what this Lizard does while traveling accross the water.
Facinating to say the least. Were that possible you would see some
serious kayak motion accross the water.

Best Regards,

Philip Wylie

THE LIZARD THAT WALKS ON WATER

In Central America, there is a lizard called the basilisk lizard that
actually runs across the top of water.
Weighing nearly a fourth of a pound, these lizards escape their enemies
or just get from one point to
another by running with their back legs in the water and their body
angled to the water.

The physics of running on water is remarkable. The lizard starts its
journey across the top of the water
by slapping the water with its hind foot. The foot has a fringe on it
that flares out as the foot is pushed
down, creating a large surface area that pushes down on the water. As
the foot pushes down into the
water, it creates a hole in the water so water pushes up on the lizard's
foot. Measurements have shown
that this motion produces from 110-225 % of the force needed to support
the lizard's weight.

All this would be lost, however, if the lizard did not pull its foot out
of the hole created
when it pushed its foot down into the water. To pull the foot out of the
water requires
the animal to overcome adhesion between the water and the lizard's foot.
Its foot can
be collapsed and slanted. Once the animal has made its push downward,
the toes on the
foot are pulled together and the entire foot is pulled upward. That
means the foot is
surrounded only by air as the animal quickly pulls its foot out of the
hole. For a human to do what the
basilisk lizard does, they would have to run 65 miles an hour and expend
15 times more energy that a
human is able to expend.

The design of the foot and leg structures of the lizard to accomplish
the remarkable feat of running on
water is an engineering marvel. A master intelligence has produced a
technique that man has only
recently understood. How this knowledge will be used remains to be seen
because the lizard takes 20
steps a second; translating that to a boat or similar device seems to be
beyond man's ability at this time.
It may be, however, that--like in a lot of things--mankind may copy
Creator's design and use this new
information to improve our ability to move on water.

--Reference: Scientific American, September, 1997, page 68

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