Lizards use nostril bubbles to breathe underwater and evade predators, researchers find

Researchers found that water anoles cold remain submerged for longer without moisturiser on their skin that prevented the nostril bubbles from forming properly. Photograph: Lindsey Swierk

Pencil-long lizards that plunge into streams to evade their predators survive underwater by breathing through a bubble that forms on their nostrils, researchers say.

Water anoles live around rocks and plants near streams and waterfalls in Central and South America and are preyed on by birds, snakes and other lizards, making life in the forest an often short affair.