Mondo Knows Facts
A chameleon's tongue fires like a catapult
It reaches prey in about a twentieth of a second Energy is stored in elastic tissue and released when the tongue launches from the mouth. The tip arrives sticky and wraps the prey on contact. Eyes move independently so the chameleon judges distance before firing. It sits in Mondo's animals collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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A woodpecker's tongue wraps around its skullThe long tongue is stored in a sheath that loops over the back of the headA hunting bat can call 200 times a secondThe rate rises as it closes on an insectArcherfish shoot down insects using precise water jetsAn archerfish squirts water from its mouth to knock prey into the water.Trapdoor spiders ambush prey through silk-hinged burrowsSilk tripwires around the burrow lid alert the spider to passing insects.Humpback whales trap fish schools inside spiralling bubble netsWhales blow rings of air bubbles under water to corral schooling fish.A peregrine falcon stoops faster than 300 kilometres an hourMeasured dives exceed 380 kilometres an hour in level flight trials
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Tags: reptiles, tongue, hunting
A chameleon's tongue fires like a catapult: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- It reaches prey in about a twentieth of a second. The figure is taken from Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a animals fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Animals shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.