Cane toads fling their tongues so hard the recoil slaps their heart

The archetypal X-ray footage of a toad gulping down a repast reveals that its lingua recoils into its assemblage further than it stretches retired to drawback prey

Life 3 November 2022

By Jake Buehler

Cane toads practically lick their ain hearts arsenic they eat. Their tongues agelong farther down their throats than they widen to drawback prey.

Many frog species person tongues that are powerfully sticky and yank prey into their mouths. The muscular and skeletal creation that allows the frog to widen its lingua and ensnare prey is comparatively well-understood, says David Blackburn astatine the University of Florida.

“But we really cognize thing astir what happens to the wrong of a frog erstwhile it closes its mouth,” helium says.

To get an wrong look astatine however frogs swallow their prey, Blackburn and his …