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.
舌头是人体中一个肌肉发达的器官，我们可以用它舔舐东西，呼吸空气，品尝味道，吞咽食物以及说话，而在动物王国，这个器官的颜色、形状、长度和功能各有千秋，因此，千万不要小看动物的舌头。
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
长颈鹿，作为这个世界上现有的最高的动物，有着令人惊讶的长达53厘米的舌头，而且如果你没有亲眼见过，你也就不会知道它紫色、蓝色和黑色混合而成的颜色！这是因为长颈鹿舌头的表面覆盖着很多的黑色素，可以在他们舔食嫩叶时起到防晒的作用。长颈鹿也会用它的长舌头去掏耳朵！
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.
吉拉毒蜥也因为它如同叉子一样的舌头，所以名字里面有“monster（怪兽）”这个词。据了解，它的“叉子”舌头可以实现“三维角度”的嗅觉，也就是说舌头的两个尖端可以识别到相同的气味，并且区分出空气中漂浮的化学物质，反过来帮助他们锁定气味的来源。
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.
当这种有毒的蜥蜴感到饥饿时，它就会来回摆动它那条敏感性极强的舌头，捕捉着周围环境中的化学气味信息，他们口腔上部有一个特殊的器官，被称为雅各布逊氏器。蜥蜴通过这个器官闻到气味。他们用舌头感知气味，随后气味传递到雅各布逊氏器。然后分析这些信息，让蜥蜴辨别出附近是否有潜伏的猎物，比如一些哺乳动物，青蛙，小型的蜥蜴，啮齿动物和昆虫。
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.
穿山甲是一种奇怪的动物，它也是人类已知的唯一一种长有鳞片的哺乳动物。它黏糊糊的舌头更是奇怪，因为它不是连接在口腔里面，而是胸腔里面。除非忙着抢夺蚂蚁和白蚁，它的舌头平时是停留在胸腔里面。当穿山甲的舌头伸展开时，能够长达4厘米，比他的头和身子加起来还要长。
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.
马来熊同样有着长度惊人的舌头，估计吉尼斯世界纪录，它的舌头可以长达25厘米。这个特质成功地帮助它成为了小熊维尼的原型，这长长的舌头可以从蜂巢中取到蜂蜜，因此马来熊也有另外一个绰号叫做“蜂蜜熊”
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.)
国家地理曾报道，河马的进化史中有很多是不解之谜，他们那巨大的舌头也不例外。在2010年The Anatomical Record期刊中发表的一篇文章中写到：研究人员用扫描电子显微镜和传统光学显微镜观察年幼和年长的河马他们的舌头（一头49岁的河马舌头长达60厘米，而一头4岁的幼年河马舌头长约45厘米）。
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).
团队人员发现河马的舌头和一些动物的舌头有相似的特征，比如奇蹄目动物，反刍类动物，杂食类动物和非反刍类哺乳动物。
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.
与此同时，河马还用他们的“三腔胃”来帮助他们消化草料。河马的食草属性和他们独一无二的进化史也可以解释河马舌头所具有的一些形态特征。
Penguins
Which tongue has more bristles than a hairbrush? It’s none other than the penguin’s.
哪种动物的舌头上面的毛刷比梳子还多？那非企鹅莫属了！
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.
企鹅的舌头没有味蕾，但是它确实长有很多以角蛋白为主要成分的硬毛刷，角蛋白是一种纤维状的蛋白组成了人类的头发和指甲。他们舌头上的这些硬毛刷能够帮助他们抓住蠕动的磷虾和鱼。
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.
啄木鸟的舌头是由骨头，软骨和肌肉组成的，长得很长，所以啄木鸟才能抓住藏在树干里的虫子。但是啄木鸟的嘴却没有那么大，足以装下这么长的舌头。因此，有什么解决办法呢？当啄木鸟不用舌头的时候，舌头就会自己绕着头骨蜷缩起来。
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. However，cats don’t care whether their prey tastes sweet.
和其他猫科动物一样，威武的狮子也会用舌头打理自己的毛发。猫科动物的舌头是非常好的梳子，因为上面长有细微的倒刺，倒刺锋利、空心向后弯曲。舌头上的倒刺还可以在他们清理毛发时将唾液留在表面，而唾液蒸发又会帮助动物降温。然而，猫科动物的舌头却不能识别出甜味！
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.
小心！如果巨型叶尾壁虎感受到来自外界的威胁，那么他也不会轻易放过你！当这种壁虎被打扰时，他会张大嘴巴，亮出他那鲜红的嘴巴和舌头，然后发出一种类似于孩子尖叫的非常刺耳的叫声。
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.”
青蛙的舌头是出了名得快，而且这“快舌头”有“大作用”。Alexis Noel是佐治亚州科研中心的一名研究人员，他专注于研究青蛙和猫的舌头，他发现超过4000种不同类别的青蛙可以用比人类眨眼睛还快的速度抓住东西。青蛙的舌头构造独特，与人类不同的是它的舌头是与下颚前段连接的。
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.
除了速度很快以外，青蛙的舌头还很强壮。以角蛙为例，它的舌头可以拉动比它自身重1.4倍的东西。
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