CAT GOT YOUR TONGUE?
PENGUIN
Penguins are agile predators underwater, zipping around like torpedoes as they chase down fish and squid. But how do they keep their prey from squirming out of their grasp? The answer lies in what the birds already have in their mouths.
A penguin’s mouth and tongue are covered in hard, backward-pointing spines called papillae. It’s the same feature that makes a cat’s tongue feel like sandpaper. But you wouldn’t want a penguin to lick you – the spines aren’t just large, they’re also sharp (a lick from one of these would easily make you bleed). The spines dig into slippery prey and help move it down the bird’s throat.
A penguin’s tongue is also very muscular, so is probably used to push and manipulate the food in their mouths, like humans. Unlike us,
