A Woodpecker’s tongue is so long that it wraps around its skull

Comments

• artifex@piefed.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  It acts as a shock absorber for its brain.

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  • Deme@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    That is a common misconception. Shock absorption would diminish pecking performance. You want your hammer to be hard instead of soft if you want to get anything done. Woodpeckers have very stiff heads because of this.

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    • thepig@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Damn, now I have a lot of questions about this weird tongue.

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    • alanjaow@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Your link says the page does not exist.

      By my thinking, the damage to the brain could outweigh the better foraging. Then I thought that the brain mooshing into the front of the skull later in the peck would turn the head into a dead-blow hammer, which are still quite effective hammers.

      “A dead-blow hammer delivers the momentum over a longer period, resulting in less peak force, but similar total driving effect for the same head weight.”

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  • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I watched a video about this but idk where. Anyone have the link?

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• moldyringwald@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Jesus is that what cushions their brain from all the violent headbanging?

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  • FatVegan@leminal.space ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Actually no, they don’t absorb any shock, otherwise their hammer would lose a lot of their efficiency

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• Jerb322@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Before you get any ideas. They also have little hooks covering the end of it, to pull bugs out of tight places.

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• Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Is there anything holding it on? It looks like there’s a possibility of the tongue just flying right out.

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• webp@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  What that tongue doing?

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  • anon_8675309@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    He shoves it in holes and licks the good stuff

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• Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Wait, what, yours doesn’t?

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  • mech@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Mine wraps around a pecker’s had regularly.

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• Broadfern@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Quality TIL in my shitpost feed? Preposterous! 😤

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• OhStopYellingAtMe@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Me too!

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• strop@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I needed this, fellow shitposter. Thank you ✊

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