Also: tongue projection, viscous adhesion, setae
Chameleons grip branches with hairy feet and catch prey with a sticky, catapulted tongue.
Values as stated in the cited paper's abstract.
| Property | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Tongue acceleration | up to 500 m/s² | de Groot 2004 |
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de Groot and van Leeuwen found chameleon tongues project up to 1.5 body lengths at up to 500 m/s², needing more power than the muscle alone can deliver, evidence for an elastic mechanism.
As reported in: de Groot, van Leeuwen (2004). Evidence for an elastic projection mechanism in the chameleon tongue. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences. doi:10.1098/rspb.2003.2637
Brau and colleagues showed chameleon tongue mucus is highly viscous, so viscous adhesion does not limit prey size.
As reported in: Brau, Lanterbecq, Zghikh et al. (2016). Dynamics of prey prehension by chameleons through viscous adhesion. Nature Physics. doi:10.1038/nphys3795
Spinner and colleagues found setae under chameleon feet maximize friction across a wide range of surface roughness.
As reported in: Spinner, Westhoff, Gorb (2014). Subdigital setae of chameleon feet: Friction-enhancing microstructures for a wide range of substrate roughness. Scientific Reports. doi:10.1038/srep05481