Researchers at the University of South Florida are studying how the high-speed tongues of chameleons and salamanders could inspire new engineering solutions. USF postdoctoral researcher Yu Zeng and integrative biology Professor Stephen Deban have discovered that, despite evolving in different environments, both animals use a similar mechanism to project their tongues at high speeds.
The findings were published in the Sept. 8 edition of Current Biology. The study used video analysis collected over more than ten years to show that both species can launch their tongues at speeds up to 16 feet per second. This is the first time these animals have been compared side by side with a unified mechanical model.
“They have actually never met each other in the wild,” Zeng said. He explained further: “They evolved the same architecture in their bodies to fire their tongues at high speed. What’s surprising is that they achieve this using the same ordinary tissues, tendons and bone that other vertebrates have.”
Zeng previously studied insect flight before joining Deban’s lab, bringing a new perspective on animal movement and its technological applications. Deban has spent over thirty years researching animal physiology and movement.
The research team described the tongue projection system as working much like a slingshot, an approach with potential uses outside biology. “This mechanism can be scaled up or down, using soft or flexible materials,” Zeng said. “We’re already talking with engineers about possible biomedical applications, like devices that could clear blood clots. On a larger scale, it could inspire tools to retrieve objects in hard-to-reach places like a collapsed building or even grabbing debris in outer space.”
Deban and Zeng plan to continue exploring how these animals not only extend but also retract their tongues quickly and accurately. Their work follows trends in bioinspiration—a field focused on developing new materials or devices based on biological systems.
“It is gratifying to have a unifying story about these amazing tongues, as well as potential engineering applications after so many years of focusing on the biology of these animals,” Deban said. “Nature has already solved these problems, now we’re learning how to adapt those solutions for us.”
Research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students are available in the Deban Laboratory at USF.
