The Lizard That Fires Its Tongue 0-60 MPH in 0.01 Seconds

A chameleon small enough to sit on your thumb fires its tongue at 264 g - zero to sixty miles an hour in about a hundredth of a second - and the smaller the chameleon, the harder the shot. We go through how 20 species were filmed at 3,000 frames per second, why no muscle can deliver 14,040 watts per kilogram (collagen springs on a pointed bone do it instead), why the shot barely slows in the cold, how the 400x-viscous tongue pad grips, the Measure-Off against giant chameleons, fighter pilots, mantis shrimp and trap-jaw ants (MEASURED vs ESTIMATED), and what we still don't know - including the salamander that beats it. CHAPTERS 0:00 0 to 60 in a hundredth of a second 0:31 Meet the weapon 2:06 How do you film a 20 ms strike? 3:06 The smallest one: 264 g 4:24 The number no muscle can reach 4:52 The collagen spring 6:32 Why the cold barely slows it 7:30 The 400x sticky pad 8:28 A hunt, step by step 9:12 Why the smallest wins 10:19 The Measure-Off 11:48 The salamander that beats it 12:19 What we still don't know 13:39 The cost 14:20 The three answers 15:00 Try it yourself SOURCES Anderson CV (2016) Off like a shot: scaling of ballistic tongue projection reveals extremely high performance in small chameleons. Scientific Reports 6:18625. doi:10.1038/srep18625 Brown University news release, 4 Jan 2016 (0-60 mph comparison, 20 species, 3,000 fps) de Groot JH & van Leeuwen JL (2004) Evidence for an elastic projection mechanism in the chameleon tongue. Proc R Soc B 271:761-770. doi:10.1098/rspb.2003.2637 Anderson CV & Deban SM (2010) Ballistic tongue projection in chameleons maintains high performance at low temperature. PNAS 107:5495-5499. doi:10.1073/pnas.0910778107 Brau F et al. (2016) Dynamics of prey prehension by chameleons through viscous adhesion. Nature Physics 12:931-935. doi:10.1038/nphys3795 Herrel A et al. (2000) The mechanics of prey prehension in chameleons. J Exp Biol 203:3255-3263 Ketter Katz H et al. (2015) Eye movements in chameleons are not truly independent. J Exp Biol 218 Stuart-Fox D & Moussalli A (2008) Selection for social signalling drives the evolution of chameleon colour change. PLoS Biology 6:e25. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060025 Teyssier J et al. (2015) Photonic crystals cause active colour change in chameleons. Nature Communications 6:6368. doi:10.1038/ncomms7368 Deban SM et al. (2007) Extremely high-power tongue projection in plethodontid salamanders. J Exp Biol 210:655-667. doi:10.1242/jeb.02664 Patek SN et al. (2004) Deadly strike mechanism of a mantis shrimp. Nature 428:819-820 Patek SN et al. (2006) Multifunctionality and mechanical origins: ballistic jaw propulsion in trap-jaw ants. PNAS 103:12787-12792 IUCN Red List: Rhampholeon spinosus (Endangered, 2014); Mongabay 2014 on 36% of chameleon species threatened The 0-60 mph figure is a press translation of the measured peak acceleration (264 g). Trap-jaw ant acceleration is an order-of-magnitude estimate. Some scenes are AI-generated reconstructions (Meta AI) or 3D illustrations; real footage and photos are credited below. Researchers shown are anonymous. CREDITS Footage & images: Rosette-nosed pygmy chameleon (Rhampholeon spinosus) photos by John Lyakurwa via iNaturalist / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... "Rhampholeon spinosus distribution.png" by rbrausse (Quantum GIS; map data Natural Earth) (CC BY-SA 3.0) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Additional stock footage: Motion Array, Pexels #Chameleon #AnimalScience #Biomechanics