The incredibly long tongue

New Scientist
A rare South American bat turns out to have a spectacularly long tongue. At up to 150% the length of its body, it is proportionally the longest of any mammal. The bat appears to have evolved its incredible tongue in order to feed exclusively from a tubular flower found in the “cloud forests” of Ecuador.

Nectar bats’ tongues have tiny hairs on the end, which they use to mop up nectar and pollen from within flowers. The plants gain from this relationship by depositing pollen on the bat’s head, which it spreads from flower to flower.

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To put this in perspective: If you are six feet tall your tongue would be nine feet long—plenty to get those last drops of cappucino from the bottom of the cup.