Prehensile tail loss

I have this thread going in a few forums, some good discussions so far and I would link to them but you need to be a member on the sites. So lets see what anyone here can add.


Well, autotomy, when a tail is detached whether from predation or poor handling and so forth, most lizards regenerate the tail to some degre and some almost look like it never happened.

We all know that ciliatus " crested geckos " do not grow much of a tail back at all.

Could this be, the complexity of a cresteds tail is too much to reproduce?
The muscles and nerves just cant regenerate to what it once was so its body just says forget it?

Why would it not regenerate just a length of flesh to give the gecko its original balance?

Now, what other lizards with prehensile tails deal with autotomy the same as ciliatus, or which ones if any, have prehensile tails yet still grow them back, to what extent?