Why do some lizards drop their tails when attacked?

Some lizards drop their tails when attacked as a defensive strategy known as autotomy. When a predator seizes a lizard, the animal can voluntarily shed its tail by twitching specific muscles, which causes the tail to break along a pre-existing fracture plane in the vertebrae.123

This detached tail continues to wriggle violently for several seconds due to the stimulation of nerves within the severed portion. This movement serves as a distraction, confusing the predator and providing the lizard with a crucial opportunity to escape.32

Following this event, the stump heals quickly, and the lizard can regenerate a new tail. While the new tail is often shorter and features simpler scales than the original, it serves as a functional replacement, though it typically contains a cartilaginous tube rather than the original segmented vertebrae.324