5 Animals With the Weirdest Tongues

Although tongues are important and useful, let’s admit it: They are a little weird. Here are some of the weirdest tongues out there:

Woodpeckers

Woodpeckers’ tongues attach near the front of their head and travel through the nose cavity, across the skull and then out of their mouths.

Blue Whales

A blue whale’s tongue weighs as much as an elephant and is big enough to hold an entire football team.

Salamanders

Lungless salamanders have the quickest of all vertebrate tongues, moving many times faster than an eye blink. Their tongue is uniquely powered, like a ballistic missile.

Snakes

When a snake flicks its tongue, the tongue collects chemicals in the air, which are then examined by a specialized organ inside their mouth. Their split tongue locates prey by sensing which fork of the tongue receives the chemical information first.

Fish

Some fish have tongues that aren’t real. The blood supply to their original tongue gets cut off by a parasite called Cymothoa extingua, also known as a tongue-eating louse. The parasite then attaches itself to the tongue’s stump and enjoys free food that the fish catches.