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Short "hint"

n. - Spontaneous removal or casting off of a body part (as the tail of a lizard or claw or a lobster) especially when the organism is injured or under attack.

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Usage examples (8)
  • Iguanas are also capable of loosing their tail autotomy for defense and it will regenerate.
  • October 26, 2005 22: 46 autotomy: hey logan5, this mix is awesome, thanks for putting it up.
  • They are also odd among salamanders in that some species can drop the tail as a predator-defence mechanism (properly called caudal autotomy), and in that some species...
  • Slow-worms are like many other squamates in being able to drop the tail voluntarily by contracting muscles (this is known as caudal autotomy), but they do this more than...
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