Cold blooded snipers

Cold blooded snipers
Chameleons have cool tongues. But they are not unique. There are salamanders (Hydromantes spp.) that do a very similar thing. (the mechanism differs).

They capture prey using the most extreme tongue projection among salamanders, and can shoot the tongue a distance of 80% of body length in less than 20msec. The tongue skeleton is projected from the body via an elastic-recoil mechanism that decouples muscle contraction from tongue projection, amplifying muscle power tenfold.

For example the giant palm salamander of Central America (Bolitoglossa dofleini) captures fast-moving bugs with an explosive tongue thrust that releases over 18,000 watts of power per kilogram of muscle. Pretty cool..huh?

watch video:
The longest tongue of any amphibian

References:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/03/070309-salamander.html

http://www.academia.edu/1057227/Cold-blooded_snipers_thermal_independence_of_ballistic_tongue_projection_in_the_salamander_Hydromantes_platycephalus