Moisture harvesting system in thorny devils - Clara García Guardiola

Nombre y apellidos:
Clara García Guardiola

País:
España

Redes sociales:
www.instagram.com/claragarciailustracion

Título:
Moisture harvesting system in thorny devils

Especie:
Thorny devil (Moloch horridus)

Descripción:
Inhabiting deserts and semi-deserts of Australia these specialized lizards harvest environmental moisture using their skin.
The skin channels transporting water are formed by partially overlapping scales with a narrow opening on their superficial side (A), by which a semi-tubular system of channels is formed extending over the lizard's body surface.
Channels are hierarchically structured as a large channel, between irregularly hexagonal scales (B) and spines (C), sub-divided by protusions (Oberhäutchen structures – D) into smaller sub-capillaries. The large channel absorbs water whereas the sub-capillaries extend the transport distance. Water is transported to the mouth by capillary action (blue and white arrows showing water direction), where active ingestion occurs by jaws movements.

Categoría:
Ilustración científica

Técnica:
Graphite and digital edition

Año:
2018

Como autor de la ilustración he dado permiso para que sea cargada en Wikimedia Commons con licencia Creative Commons Reconocimiento Compartir Igual 3.0.