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The Journal of Experimental Biology 204, 3621-3627 (2001)
© 2001 The Company of Biologists Limited

Functional implications of supercontracting muscle in the chameleon tongue retractors

Anthony Herrel^1,*, Jay J. Meyers², Peter Aerts¹ and Kiisa C. Nishikawa²

¹ Laboratory of Functional Morphology, Biology Department, University of Antwerp (UIA), Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Antwerp, Belgium and
² Functional Morphology and Physiology Group, Biology Department, Northern Arizona University, PO Box 5640 Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA

*e-mail: aherrel{at}uia.ua.ac.be

Accepted August 7, 2001

Chameleons capture prey items using a ballistic tongue projection mechanism that is unique among lizards. During prey capture, the tongue can be projected up to two full body lengths and may extend up to 600 % of its resting length. Being ambush predators, chameleons eat infrequently and take relatively large prey. The extreme tongue elongation (sixfold) and the need to be able to retract fairly heavy prey at any given distance from the mouth are likely to place constraints on the tongue retractor muscles. The data examined here show that in vivo retractor force production is almost constant for a wide range of projection distances. An examination of muscle physiology and of the ultrastructure of the tongue retractor muscle shows that this is the result (i) of active hyoid retraction, (ii) of large muscle filament overlap at maximal tongue extension and (iii) of the supercontractile properties of the tongue retractor muscles. We suggest that the chameleon tongue retractor muscles may have evolved supercontractile properties to enable a substantial force to be produced over a wide range of tongue projection distances. This enables chameleons successfully to retract even large prey from a variety of distances in their complex three-dimensional habitat.

Key words: Chameleonidae, Chamaeleo oustaleti, super-contracting striated muscle, prey capture, force, tongue retractor, ultrastructure.

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