Madagascar giant day gecko

Geckos have special ‘adhesive pads’ on their toes. If you look closely, you can see their coarsest structure – the lamellae – with the naked eye as ridges or lines. However, these alone are not enough to enable them to cling on.

For what only becomes visible under a microscope is this: on every single lamella there are thousands of extremely fine bristles or hairs. They are only just as long as a human hair is thick.

At their tips, these tiny hairs branch out a hundredfold into unimaginably small plates. It is these, ultimately, that enable the gecko to cling to smooth surfaces, in a sophisticated interplay with its blood circulation.