A few days ago, I was just messing around with my younger sister when I stuck my tongue out to tease her. She retaliated by sticking her tongue back out. Interestingly, this led me to remember the fact that a certain animal could not stick it's tongue out. I used DuckDuckGo to search up the certain animal as google has aged and found out that this animal was none other than a crocodile. I knew that I had found the inspiration for my next blog article i.e this one.
Crocodylidae, more commonly known as crocodile, is a cold-blooded reptile. It belongs to Phylum Chordata, Class Reptilia, and Order Crocodilia. Often we humans tend to stick our tongues out when we are doing something or concentrating on a task at hand. This temporarily stops communication between the tongue and brain thereby allowing the latter to focus more on the given task.
Now, alligators are capable of sticking their tongues out while crocodiles cannot, why is this? The first striking factor is that the tongue shape and position of a croc are much different from that of a gator. The former’s tongue is fixed to the roof of its mouth by a membrane so it does not move. Given that they also have narrow mouths, it is practically impossible for them to stick their tongues out. This contrivance, however, is helpful when trying to snap jaws shut immediately after catching prey. They definitely do not want to accidentally snap their tongue off.
Nature is really interesting and full of wonders, only if you pay attention and give it a chance. This is just one of its many wonders.
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