Bufo terrestris

Bufo terrestris is a terrestrial anuran species from the southeastern United States. Like all members of the genus Bufo, it captures prey with a projectile tongue. The tongue is attached to the tip of the lower jaw and is literally whipped out of the mouth when the jaw is rapidly lowered. In the movie, note that the lower jaw is stationary by the time the tongue tip leaves the mouth. The rest of tongue projection is accomplished by momentum that has been imparted to the tongue by the lower jaw. This video was recorded at 3,000 frames per second and plays back at 100 times slower than actual speed.

Recently we have found that toads, like chameleons, maintain high performance of tongue projection even at cold temperatures, by virtue of their spring-loaded mouth opening which whips out the tongue. We reported this phenomenon in the Journal of Experimental Biology:

Deban, S.M. and A.K. Lappin. 2011. Thermal effects on the dynamics and motor control of ballistic prey capture in toads: maintaining high performance at low temperature. Journal of Experimental Biology 214: 1333-1346.

For further information on the dynamics of tongue projection in toads, see…

Lappin, A. K., Monroy, J. A., Pilarski, J. Q., Zepnewski, E. D., Pierotti, D. J. and Nishikawa, K. C. (2006). Storage and recovery of elastic potential energy powers ballistic prey capture in toads. J. Exp. Biol. 209, 2535-2553.