Longest Tongues!!!!

[redfl83]

Hi there always wondered which chams have the longest tongues looking at the yemen tongue pics it looks as though theirs are massive Especially compared to my wee senegals tiny pink tongue!!! & do colours vary in species too
Been wondering for ages so please any info would be great its just one of those things i need to know lol

 

[Chris Anderson]

Your question is a little more complicated then it seems. Obviously larger chameleon species are going to have longer tongues as far as the absolute length measurement is concerned. It would seem logical then that the largest species, i.e. Calumma p. parsonii, Furcifer oustaleti and Chamaeleo (Trioceros) melleri, for example, would have the absolute longest tongues. My personal opinion is that a more interesting question is what species has the relative longest tongue, that is the species with the longest tongue compared to their body length. I've personally measured Rieppeleon brevicaudatus tongue projection lengths as high as 2.02 times the animal's body length using my high speed feeding videos. The truth of the matter is, however, no one has actually published any comparative studies of the tongue between different species of chameleons so we really don't know if there are species with relatively longer tongues then other species. As far as color goes, there is variation in mouth and tongue coloration between species.

Chris

 

[redfl83]

Your question is a little more complicated then it seems. Obviously larger chameleon species are going to have longer tongues as far as the absolute length measurement is concerned. It would seem logical then that the largest species, i.e. Calumma p. parsonii, Furcifer oustaleti and Chamaeleo (Trioceros) melleri, for example, would have the absolute longest tongues. My personal opinion is that a more interesting question is what species has the relative longest tongue, that is the species with the longest tongue compared to their body length. I've personally measured Rieppeleon brevicaudatus tongue projection lengths as high as 2.02 times the animal's body length using my high speed feeding videos. The truth of the matter is, however, no one has actually published any comparative studies of the tongue between different species of chameleons so we really don't know if there are species with relatively longer tongues then other species. As far as color goes, there is variation in mouth and tongue coloration between species.

Chris

lol trust me thanks for replying tho i did know larger species had longer tongues but it was just after seeing the yemen pics my wee mans tongue is tiny lol
Theres a project for u then studying the different species & tongues

 

[Chris Anderson]

Theres a project for u then studying the different species & tongues

Already working on it It'll take a while though to have enough data from enough different species to make much of an interesting comparison. Another issue is getting feeding videos at maximal tongue projection distances. For instance, i have over 150 high speed feeding videos of Chamaeleo calyptratus and the maximal relative projection length I've recorded is 1.52 times the body length (SVL). Its hard to say if this is actually the maximum of their performance or not. I am also extending the tongues of dead specimens to look at their tongue length but I suspect this may not be as accurate of a measure as a functional measurement such as the actual projection length.

Chris