Remarkable¹ slow-motion footage has been taken of two lizards³ that seem to do the impossible - walk on water.

两只蜥蜴被用慢镜头拍摄到似乎不可能的事情——在水面行走。

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A "Jesus Christ" lizard, filmed from above and below the water

A high-definition film, shot at 2,000 frames per second, shows a brown basilisk（蛇怪） lizard running across the surface of a pond in Belize.

More footage shows how a species of gecko（壁虎） is so tiny that it can walk across a puddle⁴（水池，水坑） without breaking the water's surface tension.

These amazing feats⁵（专长，特技） are captured for the BBC natural history series Life.

The group of animals known as basilisk lizards commonly lives along the edge of rivers running through rainforests, eating small insects among the foliage⁶（美人草）.

The lizards need to bask⁷ in the sun（晒太阳） to warm up each day, which leaves them vulnerable to being caught by predators⁸（掠夺者，捕食者）, such as large birds of prey⁹ hunting from the air, or carnivores（肉食动物） such as cats living on the jungle floor.

So the lizards have evolved an extraordinary escape mechanism¹⁰.

They drop into the water and then run across it, earning the lizards their nickname, the "Jesus" or "Jesus Christ" lizard.

Exactly how they do so is revealed by the slow-motion, high-definition footage taken at 2,000 frames per second.

"Because they run so fast they create a bubble as their feet hit the water and then they push off from this bubble before it bursts," says Simon Blakeney, a producer on the Life series who helped direct and film the footage of both reptiles¹¹（爬行动物）.

"They can only run at that speed. If they were going any slower, for example, they wouldn't stay upright, they would slip into the water and would have to swim."

Mr Blakeney and his colleagues filmed brown basilisk lizards (Basiliscus vittatus) running across ponds and rivers in the rainforest in Belize, around 60km from Belize City.

Capturing the footage of the animals in action proved tricky¹².

"Around 80% of the time when they are escaping from things, they don't run, they swim. So filming them running was quite a difficult thing in itself."

The lizard has long thin toes that are covered by scales underfoot. These help create the air bubbles that enable the lizard to push off and walk across the water.

Scientists had also previously¹³ established that basilisk lizards produce massive sideways forces in their running stride（大步）, which, perversely¹⁴（倔强地）, help them stay upright.

Slowing the action of the film to 1/80th of its real-life speed reveals the true spectacle, says Mr Blakeney.

"As the water lifts up it makes this incredible trail of splashes（飞溅的水） behind it, like a pebble¹⁵（鹅卵石） dropping into the water.

"Then the lizard has already gone out of frame because they are so fast."