sticky gecko toes,

through salamander sun, coax

lizards' lullabies

gecko's have millions of tiny hairs on their toes called setae ('setae' being latin for 'bristle'). all combined, these hair-like tissues give a washboard type appearance to a gecko's toes. each one of these seta have thousands of thinner hair-like structures that have flat caps at the ends called spatulae (yes, the same meaning as the thing that flips your pancakes). these spatulae use what is called "van der waals" force to allow the gecko's feet to adhere to objects. more specifically, all of these seta and spatulae combined give the gecko's feet an extremely large surface area, compared to its size.