ArticleJournal of the Royal Society, Interface2017
Frogs use a viscoelastic tongue and non-Newtonian saliva to catch prey.
Article in Journal of the Royal Society, Interface, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Bio-Inspired Stored Magnetic Energy Actuator with Transient Triggering and Programmable Logic.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Bionic Perception of Surface Adhesion via a Magnetized Spring-like Sensor with Axial Stretchability.ACS nano · 2025Article
- Multi-Mechanism Collaborative Bionic Fixation Technique Between a Wide Range of Solid Interfaces.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Enhanced wet grip with North American river otter paws.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2024Article
- Stiffness-tunable velvet worm-inspired soft adhesive robot.Science advances · 2024Article
- Genomic insights into the cellular specialization of predation in raptorial protists.BMC biology · 2024Article
- Food transport in Reptilia: a comparative viewpoint.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- High Performance Marine and Terrestrial Bioadhesives and the Biomedical Applications They Have Inspired.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Sequential process optimization for a digital light processing system to minimize trial and error.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- The Oral Bacterial Community inMicroorganisms · 2021Article
- In situ stiffness manipulation using elegant curved origami.Science advances · 2020Article
- Anti-predator defences of a bombardier beetle: is bombing essential for successful escape from frogs?PeerJ · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Frogs can capture insects, mice and even birds using only their tongue, with a speed and versatility unmatched in the world of synthetic materials. How can the frog tongue be so sticky? In this combined experimental and theoretical study, we perform a series of high-speed films, material tests on the tongue, and rheological tests of the frog saliva. We show that the tongue's unique stickiness results from a combination of a soft, viscoelastic tongue coupled with non-Newtonian saliva. The tongue acts like a car's shock absorber during insect capture, absorbing energy and so preventing separation from the insect. The shear-thinning saliva spreads over the insect during impact, grips it firmly during tongue retraction, and slides off during swallowing. This combination of properties gives the tongue 50 times greater work of adhesion than known synthetic polymer materials such as the sticky-hand toy. These principles may inspire the design of reversible adhesives for high-speed application.
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