The most powerful animal in the world? It might be the salamander.
Some species of salamander can shoot their tongues out so fast that scientists suspect it can’t be done by the direct application of muscle power alone. The salamanders use their tongues to catch insects literally on the fly, and the evidence, published in February in the Journal of Experimental Biology by a group of researchers led by Stephen M. Deban of the University of South Florida, suggests that these amphibians owe their dead-shot abilities to a ballistic projection mechanism that powers their rapid-fire tongue thrusts: In effect the tongue launches from the mouth like an arrow from a bow. The salamander reels in its tongue once the prey is caught.
Deban and his colleagues photographed six species of plethodont salamanders, lungless animals that breathe through their skin. Using data from high-speed video recordings of 96 feedings, the researchers ...
