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mckulty t1_j0lnmdn wrote

Reply to comment by dolfijntje in Geckos use Van Der Waals forces to stick to walls, but how do they let go? by houstoncouchguy

Learning to peel their feet off is a simple coordination programmed in reflex arcs at the spinal cord and probably already developing at hatch-time.

Standing and walking for humans involves the ears and cerebellum and higher functions that take a lot longer to develop.

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DeaddyRuxpin t1_j0lochd wrote

So it’s really very much like humans gripping something. Infants at birth already know how to curl their hand to wrap fingers around an object and grip it. No one had to teach us how to do that and our own learning just refined the process to make it more effective. The core grip coordination knowledge was already present at birth.

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