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Dynamics of prey prehension by chameleons through viscous adhesion

par Brau, Fabian ;Lanterbecq, Déborah;Zghikh, Leïla-Nastasia;Bels, Vincent;Damman, Pascal
Référence Nature physics, 12, page (931-935)
Publication Publié, 2016-06-20

Article révisé par les pairs

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Résumé :

Among predators using an adhesive tongue to feed, chameleons are able to capture large prey by projecting the tongue at high acceleration. Once in contact with a prey, the tongue retracts with a comparable acceleration to bring it to the mouth. A strong adhesion between the tongue tip and the prey is therefore required during the retraction phase to ensure a successful capture. To investigate the mechanism responsible for this strong bond, the viscosity of the mucus produced at the chameleon's tongue pad is measured, using the viscous drag exerted on rolling beads by a thin layer of mucus. Here we show that the viscosity of this secretion is about 400 times larger than that of human saliva. We incorporate this viscosity into a dynamical model for viscous adhesion, which describes the motion of the compliant tongue and the prey during the retraction phase. The variation of the maximum prey size with respect to the chameleon body length is derived, and compared with in vivo observations for various chameleon species. Our study shows that the size of the captured prey is not limited by viscous adhesion, owing to the high mucus viscosity and large contact area between the prey and the tongue.