Chameleons launch their tongues at unsuspecting insects at speeds of 26 lengths per second. They can catch insect prey located up to 1.5 body lengths away within a tenth of a second. This impressive performance drove biologists to formulate far-fetched explanations, such as that the chameleon's tongue is "erected" through an increase in blood pressure or inflated by the lungs like a party favor. More recent theories invoke the action of the tongue's large accelerator muscle [see for a review]. In a recent issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, de Groot and van Leeuwen report that the chameleon's tongue is projected with more power than can be supplied by any known muscle. These investigators reveal that the chameleon's tongue is, in fact, powered by an ingenious catapult system.
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