By Susan Milius
The new mammalian champ for sticking out its tongue is a small bat from the Andes.
The tube-lipped nectar bat zaps out a skinny tongue that can extend a distance of 1.5 times its body length, reports Nathan Muchhala of the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla. He says that among all vertebrates, only chameleons can top that, reaching out their tongues to twice their body length.