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February 20, 2013 - Lap It Up
Tongue
A cat’s tongue
Is spined
With papillae
Which backwards
lie,
Perfectly hung
To groom
As she reaches
Without words
Quote:
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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
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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
Last edited by CaliforniaMama; 02-20-2013 at 12:25 PM.
Reason: add link
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