The tongue is a muscular organ attached to the floor of the mouth with a line of skin called the frenulum. The tongue not only allows us to taste, but also to speak and swallow.
It takes time to train the tongue to speak, but we know how to swallow as soon as we are born.
The tongue has been called the "mirror of disease" because its color or texture can indicate certain illnesses. It becomes red and smooth with pernicious anemia, yellow with jaundice, and fiery red with pellagra.
Taste buds are tiny projections that cover the tongue and are also found on the palate, epiglottis, and upper throat. Taste buds work by a chemical process, like smell does. Flavors bind with the buds' receptors, which send an electrochemical current along the nerves to the brain.
Research has also shown that tastes are different for different people. Broccoli might taste wonderful to one person and taste bitter to another.
A reptile's tongue is used to locate food, "smell" an enemy, and find a mate. Reptiles do these things by flicking the tongue in and out to taste chemical particles in the air or on the ground. The particles are then transferred to a group of cells called the Jacobson's organ, which both tastes and smells them.
The alligator snapper turtle has a red wormlike appendage on the end of its tongue which it uses to attract prey. The turtle lies on the bottom of a river, opening its mouth and wiggling the "worm." When the turtle's prey dives into the turtle's mouth to grab the bait, the turtle snaps its mouth shut.
A chameleon's tongue is as long as its body or even longer; the Parson's chameleon has a tongue that is 1 1/2 times as long as its body. The chameleon's tongue is hollow with a large sticky tip. As soon as it eyes its prey, the chameleon will shoot out its tongue -- as fast as one tenth of a second. Once the prey is caught, it is pulled back into the chameleon's mouth where it is stored, all curled up in the tongue, until the chameleon is ready to eat.
