Mudskippers use watery tongue to slurp up snacks on land
Mudskippers feed on land using tongues made of water, a new study shows.
Bjørn Christian Tørrissen/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
When a mudskipper moves from water to land, it brings a mouthful of water that it uses as a tongue to move food to the back of its throat and into its belly, researchers report March 17 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. It is the first time scientists have seen an animal use a tongue made of water to eat on land. The whole process happens in less than half a second, which is why it has been hard to detect. The researchers argue that tongues of water may have helped creatures transition from water to land millions of years ago.
