Study Finds Tiny Chameleons Have Fast and Furious Tongues

Posted on January 4, 2016

A new study has found that chameleons have amazingly fast and powerful tongues. Brown University biologist Christopher Anderson discovered that chameleon tongues have a peak acceleration 264 times greater than the acceleration due to gravity. In automotive terms this acceleration rate would be like a vehicle going from 0 to 60 miles per hour in just one hundredth of a second.

Anderson says in a statement, "Smaller species have higher performance than larger species." Anderson also says the chameleon tongue has the highest acceleration and power output produced per kilogram of muscle mass by any reptile, bird, or mammal. It also the second most powerful among any kind of vertebrate after the salamander. The chameleon tongue can also achieve projection distances of 2.5 body lengths.

The study found that the total power output of the Rhampholeon spinosus (pictured above) chameleon's tongue was 14,040 watts per kilogram. Chameleons use both spontaneous muscle power and elastic tissues to rapidly fling their tongues to catch a fly. Most of the tongue motion's total energy is preloaded in the elastic tissues.

During the study Anderson recorded 20 different species of chameleons using a high speed camera. The chameleons were recorded at 3,000 frames per second as they attempted to catch a cricket hanging from a small dangling mesh. Here is a video of the chameleon tongue in action. The species in the video is Trioceros hoehnelii.

A research paper on the study was published here in the journal, Scientific Reports.

ANIMALS