February 20, 2013 - Lap It Up

[CaliforniaMama]

Tongue

A cat’s tongue
Is spined
With papillae
Which backwards
lie,
Perfectly hung
To groom
As she reaches
Without words

I have always wondered why a cat’s tongue felt so rough. It turns out cats have tons of backward-facing spines, which are called papillae. They are 500 micrometers long and rigid. The spines help when a cat cleans itself, they act more like a hairbrush. As for tigers, well they use their spines to strip feathers, fur and meat from prey.Kuwaitiful

Top photo: One-Big-Photo

Bottom photo by AlexanderY and poem from Joe Perez blog

PS: I think the top photo may have originally come from a source used by this site Nour Al Hak which gives a lot of science about cats. The footnoted link does not work.

More tongues here: Felinest