Sticky Science of a Chameleon’s Tongue #teamwater

Chameleons do not coil their tongues around prey; they rely on an adhesive mechanism. At the tongue’s tip lies mucus approximately 400 times more viscous than human saliva, comparable in thickness to honey, enabling the animal to secure insects weighing up to a third of its own body mass. To investigate this adhesive property, researchers coated a glass plate with chameleon mucus, tilted it, and rolled a small steel ball across the surface at varying speeds. They found that the faster the ball moved, the more rapidly it decelerated, indicating that the mucus’s adhesive strength increases with velocity. This velocity dependent stickiness explains why chameleons extend and retract their tongues at extraordinary speed, ensuring effective prey capture.

#science #physics #biology #animalscience #animals #chameleon #learning #explained #materialscience #fluiddynamics