Do fish have tongues? The answer is sort of… We explain <\/p>
Tongues are pretty important and have many functions \u2013 making sounds, tasting and manipulating food, and swallowing. But do all animals have tongues?<\/strong><\/p> Technically fish don’t have tongues, however most fish have a bony structure called the basihyal on the floor of the mouth that superficially resembles a tongue. But it doesn\u2019t have taste buds, isn\u2019t muscular and has very little motion, so it isn\u2019t directly equivalent.<\/p> It probably evolved to protect the ventral aorta (the major blood vessel from the heart), which lies very close to the mouth, from impacts with large, wriggly food.<\/p> So how do fish swallow food without tongues? The answer is a rather complex system combining jaw movements and body muscle contractions <\/p> It is believed sharks compensate for a missing tongue by using the muscles of their pectoral girdle \u2013 the equivalent of our shoulders \u2013 that supports and powers the anterior NS during swimming.<\/p> Think I will stick to tongues<\/p> Discover more fascinating fish facts<\/strong><\/p> Do fish have tongues? The answer is sort of… We explain <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":40509,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/do-fish-have-tongues.jpg",2121,1414,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/do-fish-have-tongues-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/do-fish-have-tongues-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/do-fish-have-tongues-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/do-fish-have-tongues-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/do-fish-have-tongues-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/do-fish-have-tongues-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Do fish have tongues? The answer is sort of... We explain","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/40508"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Do fish have tongues?<\/h2>
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