Best in the biz: The very best of Bill Flick
20 Amazing Animal Tongues
Don't underestimate the tongue, a muscular organ that humans use for licking, breathing, tasting, swallowing and speaking. But this organ varies widely in color, shape, length and function across the animal kingdom. Whereas human tongues are pink and typically just over 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) long, the anteater has a 2-foot-long (60 cm) tongue and the blue-tongued skink has a brilliant blue one.
Here's a look at 20 amazing animal tongues and the science behind them.
Giraffes
If you've ever seen a giraffe's impressive 21-inch-long (53 cm) tongue, you'll know that it's not pink. Rather, the tallest living animal in the world has a dark-colored tongue that looks like a mix of purple, blue and black. That's because giraffes (genus Giraffa) tongues are covered with a lot of the pigment melanin, which acts as a type of sunblock to protect the licker while it reaches for tender leaves.
Giraffes have such long tongues that they can even use them to clean out their ears, according to Mental Floss.
Gila monsters
The Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum) lives up to the "monster" part of its name with its forked tongue. It's thought that the gila's forked tongue helps it smell in "three dimensions," meaning that the two tips can pick up the same odor and then distinguish the wafting chemical gradients in the air, which, in turn, helps the reptile zero-in on the location of the smell's source, Andrew Durso, a herpetologist at Florida Gulf Coast University, wrote in The Conversation.
When the venomous lizard gets hungry, it flicks its sensitive tongue in and out, picking up chemical information about its surroundings. Then, the Gila monster's Jacobson's organ, a part of the olfactory (smelling) system in its nasal chamber, analyzes this information, letting the lizard know whether potential prey, such as small mammals, frogs, lizards, rodents and insects, are nearby.
Pangolins
As the only known mammal with scales, pangolins are weird creatures. Their sticky tongues are just as strange. The pangolin's tongue is connected not to the bottom of its mouth, but to the bottom of its ribcage. When it's not busy snatching up insects, such as ants and termites, the tongue hangs out in the pangolin's chest cavity.
When the pangolin's tongue is extended, it can measure up to 16 inches (40 cm) long, or longer than the animal's head and body combined, according to the BBC.
Sun bears
"The tongue of the sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) is surprisingly long, measuring up to 10 inches (25 cm), according to Guinness World Records. This feature helps the bear channel its inner Winnie the Pooh; its lengthy tongue can extract honey from beehives, a trick that landed it the nickname of "honey bear," according to National Geographic.
Hippos
Much of the hippo's evolutionary history remains shrouded in mystery, according to National Geographic. Their giant tongues are no exception. In a 2010 study published in the journal The Anatomical Record, researchers looked at the tongues of a young and old common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius amphibius) with scanning electron microscopy and conventional light microscopy. (The 49-year-old female hippo's tongue was 24 inches (60 cm) long, while the 4-year-old male's was 18 inches (45 cm) long.)
The team found that hippo tongues have features similar to a few types of animals: odd-toed ungulates (such as donkeys, which digest plant cellulose in the intestines, not the stomach), ruminants (such as cattle, which have four-chambered stomachs) and omnivorous, non-ruminant mammals (such as pigs, which have simple stomachs).
Meanwhile, hippos use their three-chambered stomachs to help them digest grass. The animal's herbivorous diet and unique evolutionary history may explain "these mixed morphological features of the tongue," the researchers wrote in the study.
Penguins
Which tongue has more bristles than a hairbrush? It's none other than the penguin's.
The penguin's tongue does not have taste buds, but it does have loads of bristles made out of keratin, the fibrous protein that makes up human hair and nails. These bristles help the penguin grab wriggly krill and fish, according to the Smithsonian.
Red-bellied woodpeckers
Woodpecker tongues — made of bone, cartilage and muscle — need to be really, really long so the birds can nab grubs hiding deep in trees. But a woodpecker's mouth isn't big enough to house that long tongue. So, what's the workaround? When it's not in use, the tongue goes into "self storage" by wrapping around the woodpecker's skull.
"The cordlike base of the tongue extends back out of their mouth on each side, winding behind and onto the top of their head, sometimes extending so far forward that it reaches the nostril," Larry Witmer, a professor of anatomy and paleontology with the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Ohio University, told Live Science. "When they need to unleash the weapon, the tongue basically unwinds from around the head to project into a crevice to capture its prey. It's a remarkable mechanism that's evolved independently in several kinds of birds, including hummingbirds."
You can check out this video of Witmer describing a red-bellied woodpecker skull and tongue.
Tongue-eating parasites
This technically isn't a real tongue; it's a parasite that destroys a fish's tongue and then becomes a "substitute" tongue. In other words, this bug-like creature (Cymothoa Exigua) is a tongue-eating parasite.
After the parasite enters through the fish's gills, it latches onto the tongue with its seven pairs of legs and (brace yourself) begins to feed on the tongue like a vampire. Soon, the tongue withers and drops off, but the parasite remains, masquerading as the fish's new tongue.
Lions
Just like other cats, the mighty lion (Panthera leo) uses its tongue to groom its fur. Feline tongues are very effective combs; they're covered with tiny spines known as papillae, which are sharp, hollow and curved backward toward the cat's throat, according to a 2018 study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. These spines help the cat deliver cleansing saliva to its fur, which later cools the cat as it evaporates.
Cats don't care whether their prey tastes sweet, however. Their tongues have a useless version of the gene Tas1r2, which encodes proteins that combine to form sugar-detecting sensors on the tongue, National Geographic reported.
Giant leaf-tailed geckos
Watch out! If the giant leaf-tailed gecko (Uroplatus fimbriatus) feels threatened, it will make sure you do, too. When this gecko is disturbed, it opens its jaws wide, flashing its bright red mouth and tongue before it releases a piercing distress call that sounds just like a child's scream, Smithsonian's National Zoo reports.
Frogs
Frogs are famous for their fast tongues, and for good reason. More than 4,000 frog species can grab objects with their tongues faster than the human eye can blink, according to Alexis Noel, a research engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute who studies frog and cat tongues, previously reported on her website. She noted that frog mouths have a unique anatomy: "Unlike humans, frog tongues are connected at the front of the lower jaw, rather than at the back of the throat."
In addition to its speed, the frog tongue is strong. The tongue of the horned frog can pull objects that are about 1.4 times the frog's body weight, a 2014 study in the journal Scientific Reports found.
Blue-tongued skinks
Blue-tongued skinks, natives of Australia and New Guinea, use their vibrant blue tongue to startle predators, according to the San Diego Zoo. When threatened, the skink puffs up its body so that it appears larger, opens its mouth and hisses while it sticks out its tongue.
Eagles
Eagles have tongues with backward-facing barbs called "rear-directed papillae," which help them swallow prey, according to the Center for Conservation Biology, a research group at the College of William and Mary and the Virginia Commonwealth University. When eagle parents are feeding their young, they use their tongues to help keep away large bones, furry chunks and sharp fins that could cause the chicks to choke, according to the Raptor Resource Project, a nonprofit bird group based in Iowa.
Alligator snapping turtles
The alligator-snapping turtle (Macrochelys temminckii) has a clever trick; it uses its little pink tongue as a fishing lure. While these turtles are known to forage for food along the bottoms of rivers, lakes and swamps, they can also lie still with their mouths open and tongues wriggling, as they wait to ambush fish that mistake their tongues for worms, according to the Nonindigenous Aquatic Species program of the U.S. Geological Survey.
Parrots
How do parrots and parakeets (a type of parrot) mimic human speech? It turns out that Polly can adjust her nimble, muscular tongue so that it modulates the sound coming from her voice box, according to Science magazine. In one small experiment, repositioning the tongue of five dead monk parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus), whose vocal tracts were connected to speaker systems, led to changes in pitch and loudness, which is key for forming vowels in speech, according to a 2004 study in the journal Current Biology.
Emperor tamarins
While humans might take note of the emperor tamarin's distinctive mustache, its fellow emperor tamarins (Saguinus imperator) may have their eyes on something else: the tongue. When these primates are displeased, they tend to flick their tongues, quickly moving the tongue in and out of the mouth, according to Apenheul Primate Park, a zoo in the Netherlands. The emperor tamarin also communicates with shrill calls, chirps, hisses and facial expressions, which, combined with tongue flicking, help keep its troop together and alert to danger, according to the New England Primate Conservancy.
Flies
That hairy appendage dangling out of a fly's mouth may look like a tongue, but it's not. Scientists call it the labellum, and it's the primary taste organ for the Drosophila fruit fly, according to a report from Indiana Public Media. The labellum is attached to the fly's straw-like proboscis, which allows the pest to slurp up food. A word to the wise: Put your leftovers away if you've got a fly problem. These buzzing beasties puke saliva and digestive juices onto food before eating it, because these acids dissolve the food the fly wants to suck up, according to HowStuffWorks.
Giant anteater
The giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) doesn't have teeth, but it doesn't need them; instead, it uses its roughly 2-foot-long (60 cm) tongue to eat up to 30,000 ants and termites a day, according to the San Diego Zoo. This narrow and spaghetti-like tongue, which is attached to the mammal's sternum, is covered with tiny, backward-pointing spines and sticky saliva to help it grab the tiny insects. The anteater's tongue is fast, too — it can dart in and out of its mouth up to 150 times a minute.
Chameleons
Chameleons are relatively slow creatures, but their 20-inch-long (50 cm) tongues are fast enough to catch speedy insects, such as locusts, mantids and grasshoppers. The tip of the chameleon's tongue is a ball of muscle, and once it hits prey, that ball transforms into a suction cup. The instant the prey is stuck, the reptile draws its tongue back into its mouth, where its strong jaws crush the catch, according to the San Diego Zoo.
Hummingbirds
Hummingbird tongues were misunderstood for more than 180 years, until a 2015 study set the record straight. Initially, scientists thought that hummingbird tongues used capillary action — in which liquid can flow through narrow channels, even against gravity — to pull up floral nectar. But actually, these tongues act as elastic micropumps, according to the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
High-speed videos showed that the hummingbird flattens the tip of its outstretched tongue against a desirable flower, then reshapes its tongue so it can fill with nectar. Next, the top of the tongue (the part by the mouth) bends, which produces elastic energy that can draw the nectar out of the flower. This process lets the bird slurp up its food at fast speeds, the study found.
Editor's note: This countdown was originally published on Aug. 28, 2020 and updated on July 10, 2024 to give it a new format and update links.
Endangered Lizards, At Risk Of Extinction Due To Climate Change, Surviving At Secret Site
A lizard thought extinct for more than 30 years is currently enjoying a second shot at life in a undisclosed location outside of Adelaide.
But without a helping hand, the pocket-sized reptile may be lost again — this time for good.
Pygmy blue-tongue lizards (Tiliqua adelaidensis) were only found in a few areas in the middle of South Australia.
Loading...But with climate change turning up the heat in their original habitat and likely making it unliveable within the next few decades, researchers set up new sites in higher latitudes to see if pygmies can survive in those new environments.
Known as "climate change translocation", the practice has its critics, but if successful, it may provide a blueprint for other at-risk organisms.
One of the people most invested in their survival is researcher Dee Trewartha.
Nine years ago, Ms Trewartha stumbled into the world of the pygmy, and today, she loves the tiny South Australian creatures more than ever.
"They're really charismatic and adorable," she says.
Ecologist Dee Trewartha visits the lizard's new home in all weather.(ABC Science: Jacinta Bowler)
As an undergraduate student studying behavioural sciences, Ms Trewartha volunteered to travel the hour out of Adelaide with some PhD students to a small field site to help catch, weigh, measure and inspect the inconspicuous creatures.
Now, while doing her own PhD at Flinders University on pygmy blue-tongues, Ms Trewartha runs the show, driving volunteers in a ute covered in blue lizard stickers out to a new second site.
On an extremely windy day, I squish into the back of the ute with a group eager to help the species survive.
Our job is to find the lizards burrows, "fish" them out using a mealworm on a string and then check how the population is faring.
Extinct or not extinct?The pygmy blue-tongue has had an impressive history for a species that spends most of its time hiding in burrows.
Loading Instagram content
It's one of a group of lizards known as Tiliqua, which are blue-tongued skinks native to Australia and surrounding islands.
The pygmy blue-tongue is one of the few species in the group that don't actually have the iconic blue tongue. Instead, it has a pink tongue in a slightly blue mouth.
The lizards grow to around 15 centimetres long, and have mottled brown skin.
With only a handful of individuals recorded, by the 1950s, it was thought that the pygmy blue-tongue lizard was extinct.
But the enigmatic reptile was simply laying low.
"[They're] hide and seek champions," Ms Trewartha jokes as we methodically scour the square plots.
"It's pretty good hiding if no-one knows you're alive."
In an extremely fateful find, in 1992, amateur herpetologist Graham Armstrong discovered a dead lizard in the belly of a road-killed brown snake north of Adelaide.
Luckily, he recognised it immediately, and called an Adelaide herpetologist to share the good news.
Researchers sprung into action, and, before long, found live specimens in the area.
It wasn't all good news though. While they had been found, there weren't many of them, so they were categorised as endangered.
They live in second-hand burrows made by spiders in native grasslands, and these are disappearing as their habitat is repurposed for agriculture.
"Spiders don't build burrows in wheat fields, so the lizards also don't live in there either," Ms Trewartha says.
A pygmy blue-tongue sticks its head out of its burrow for a meal. (ABC Science: Jacinta Bowler)
But there's an even bigger problem looming: climate change.
How can translocation help?In 2021, the Flinders University team released 52 lizards into a field on a private farm about 90 kilometres north of Adelaide.
This is much further south and cooler than the pygmy's traditional habitat, but the team was testing if the lizards could handle a change in climate.
Climate modelling suggests the pygmies are in danger of extinction in the next 50 years due to global warming.
"The predictions are that the temperatures will rise in the northern end of the pygmy blue-tongues' range, and we might lose populations," Ms Trewartha says.
"Translocation — moving the northern populations of lizard southwards — was decided to be the most likely way of conserving the species."
The Flinders University team has kept tabs on how the translocated lizards have fared in their new surroundings.
A study published in April this year in the journal Animal Conservation found the rehomed lizards were doing OK.
But translocation — especially in relation to climate change — is not without its critics.
Pygmy blue-tongue lizards grow to about 15 centimetres. (ABC Science: Jacinta Bowler)
Translocation controversySince a report popularised the idea of climate translocation in 2008, scientists have fiercely argued both sides of the debate.
University of Western Australia physiological ecologist Nicki Mitchell notes that some scientists are extremely excited by the possibility of moving organisms at risk because of a human-caused problem.
"But there is an equally strong pushback from ecologists who work on invasive species, saying that this is super-risky," she says.
With plenty of horror stories of species being translocated to a new habitat and then causing chaos — such as cane toads — it isn't surprising some researchers are cautious.
Dr Mitchell works with the first species in the world to be translocated due to climate change — the western swamp tortoise (Pseudemydura umbrina).
The tortoise shares plenty of similarities with the pygmy blue-tongue lizards: both reptiles were thought extinct and rediscovered, and now both are at risk of climate extinction.
But when it comes to translocation, Dr Mitchell's effort isn't the tortoise's first rodeo.
The western swamp tortoise is another translocated species. (Supplied: Climate Centre)
"Ironically, there was a captive breeding program from the zoo and they'd been releasing them 100 kilometres north of where they've been found, which is effectively the wrong direction," Dr Mitchell says.
"So, long story short, we started trials of assisted colonisation. It's the world's first example of a translocation of a threatened species motivated by climate change as the main threat."
Both the tortoise and the lizard have it a little easier when it comes to moving south than other at-risk creatures around the world. For example, they are within the same state and country, so there's less paperwork and red tape to navigate.
Tiny marsupial returns to island home Read moreAccording to Dr Mitchell, Australia has a history of moving endangered species back to its native habitat. For example, Dirk Hartog Island in WA reintroduced 11 native species after getting rid of invasive animals.
Both Flinders and the University of Western Australia have undertaken studies showing that, in the cases of the tortoise and lizard, their new habitats were not worse off by their presence.
The day we visit the field in South Australia, there's plenty of lizards to collect, weigh, measure and then gently return home. They're doing well in their new southern habitat.
But researchers now have to come to terms with how often, and how far, they're willing to move a species to save it.
"Historically, we've translocated species everywhere. Species have been brought into Australia as crops or escaped pets," Dr Mitchell says.
"It's a really nuanced decision because you're weighing up not just the climate change threat, but also how well you can control other threats [like unintended consequences to the new habitat].
"You're never going to get it perfect. But sometimes you're going to have to make decisions quite quickly. You haven't got decades to make up your mind."
Want to know how to catch a lizard? Listen to the full episode and subscribe to The Science Show podcast for more science stories.
Get all the latest science stories from across the ABC.
Posted 6 Jul 20246 Jul 2024Sat 6 Jul 2024 at 8:00pm, updated 7 Jul 20247 Jul 2024Sun 7 Jul 2024 at 5:19am
5 Amazing Facts About Your Tongue
If you didn't have a tongue, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between gourmet cheese and envelope glue. But tasting is only icing on the cake when it comes to what this organ can do. Here are five amazing facts about the tongue.Your tongue collects data and sends signals to the brain, letting it know if the food you're eating is good, bad, or even poisonous. These best buds are your body's first line of defense.
The tongue is essential for speaking. With it, you can yap 90 words a minute or even more. The world record is 655 words per minute by Guinness record holder Sean Shannon.
The tongue is like a mood ring. If it's pink, you're in good health. If it's white, you could have dry mouth, infection, or even a fever. A blue tongue could mean you're lacking oxygen or that you just ate a popsicle.
Tongue prints are as unique as fingerprints. Maybe they should be using these at the DMV. The tongue conveys a message with just its presence. In Tibet, sticking your tongue out is a sign of respect. But in the US, not so much. Unless you're Albert Einstein or a six-month-old, best to keep it in your mouth. ","publisher":"WebMD Video"} ]]>
Hide Video Transcript
SPEAKER
If you didn't have a tongue, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between gourmet cheese and envelope glue. But tasting is only icing on the cake when it comes to what this organ can do. Here are five amazing facts about the tongue.Your tongue collects data and sends signals to the brain, letting it know if the food you're eating is good, bad, or even poisonous. These best buds are your body's first line of defense.
The tongue is essential for speaking. With it, you can yap 90 words a minute or even more. The world record is 655 words per minute by Guinness record holder Sean Shannon.
The tongue is like a mood ring. If it's pink, you're in good health. If it's white, you could have dry mouth, infection, or even a fever. A blue tongue could mean you're lacking oxygen or that you just ate a popsicle.
Tongue prints are as unique as fingerprints. Maybe they should be using these at the DMV. The tongue conveys a message with just its presence. In Tibet, sticking your tongue out is a sign of respect. But in the US, not so much. Unless you're Albert Einstein or a six-month-old, best to keep it in your mouth.
Comments
Post a Comment