Chameleon Spit Is Hundreds Of Times More Viscous Than Human Spit
And they use it to catch prey
What better way to start your week than with news about chameleon spit?
In a new paper published today in Nature Physics, researchers figured out how chameleons get their prey into their mouths, often dragging insects across distances twice as long as the chameleon itself.
It turns out that not only are chameleon tongues incredibly fast they’re also really sticky.
No, really sticky. Compared to human spit, the researchers discovered that the mucus-like secretions that chameleons cover their tongues with are actually 400 times more viscous than human spit.
The viscous coating helps prey stick to the tongue as it makes its lightning-fast journey back into the chameleon’s mouth for a tasty treat. Watch it in action in the video above.