🦎A new article examines hyoid musculature of chameleons to explain their extreme length change.

👩‍🔬The authors found that one muscle represents the second known supercontracting muscle among vertebrates (the first being the tongue retractor muscle in chameleons), with perforated sarcomere z-discs allowing for the muscle to exert forces over a broader range of muscle lengths than typical striated muscle is capable of.

👅The second exhibits a similarly broad force-length relationship, but does so with uninterrupted z-discs, indicating that it achieves this result through another means.

👩‍🔬The authors propose that it does so through sarcomere length non-uniformity and that the supercontracting muscles of chameleons may share common contractile and structural properties due to a common origin from occipital somites.


👉 If you want more information, I encourage you to read the references:

Schneider Nikole G., Henchal Nicholas A., Diaz Jr Raul E. and Anderson Christopher V. 2025Feats of supercontractile strength: functional convergence of supercontracting muscle properties among hyoid musculature in chameleonsProc. R. Soc. B.29220250078

https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.0078

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Courtesy of IUCN SSC Chameleon Specialist Group

#cameleon #tongues #anatomy #lizards #sauria #nature #herpetology