Top 10 people with the longest tongue in the world
- Stephen Taylor is a giant human tongue.
- Nick Stoberl is more than anyone in the world.
- Annika Irmler is the longest female tongue.
- Nick Afanasyev - success thanks to language.
- Chanel Tapper is the most unique girl.
- Adrianna Lewis is funny and quirky.
- Byron Schlenker has the biggest tongue.
- Emily Schlenker is a young world record holder.
- Yagya Katuwal is a very original person.
- Radmila Yusupova is a smiling girl.
Stephen Taylor - owner of the world's largest tongue
The most amazing thing is not only the fact that man has the longest and largest tongue in the world, but also that it continues to grow. Taylor works as a regular school teacher. In 2009, Stephen was included in the Guinness Book of Records, since then his organ has grown by 0.5 cm. Thanks to this feature, the man is very popular in his homeland in England and all over the world. Taylor was repeatedly invited to television, and print publications wrote about him. The man is not at all ashamed of his uniqueness, he even demonstrates it in every possible way. Stephen has had a big tongue since childhood; even at school he entertained his classmates with various tricks. Experts in the field of science and medicine cannot explain why the longest, largest tongue in the world continues to grow. The record holder himself jokes about this that he is growing because of constant demonstrations to others.
Stephen Taylor - huge tongue
Even member of the legendary group Kiss, Gene Simmons, wanted to look at such a unique person, and was delighted with such a rarity. Stephen can easily reach his nose with the tip; the total length of the longest organ is 9.8 cm. The man’s mother urges her son not to show his pride again.
Chameleon
Chameleons are rightly called the most unusual lizards. The length of their tongue is usually equal to the length of the body. And the longer the chameleon itself, the larger its tongue, the average length of which is 50 cm. They need the tongue for hunting. It is impossible to observe this without special equipment, since it acts with lightning speed. A chameleon needs only 3 seconds to recognize and catch up to 4 insects.
Nick Stoberl - record holder of the list
The guy broke the record of the previous participant in 2015; the length of his organ is 10.08 cm. The record holder lives in the USA, works as a comedian and artist. He says that after the official recognition in 2015, all friends, when meeting new people, always add that Nick has the longest tongue in the world. Of course, new acquaintances ask to demonstrate such a rarity.
Nick Stoberl - a big tongue by inheritance
The guy admits that it’s very cool to have such a big tongue, you can easily reach the tip of your nose and amuse your friends. His father also had this phenomenon, so we can say that the rare phenomenon was inherited by Stoberl. According to the young man, it was not easy to officially register his figure; the desire to stand out coincided with the 60th edition of the Guinness Book of Records. Before publication, the record holders were checked very carefully, Nick took measurements several times and finally got into the Book, which he is very proud of.
Woodpecker
Everyone knows that the woodpecker has a very strong beak, with which it makes holes in the bark of trees to get food for itself. But few people know that this bird has the largest tongue. There are specimens with a tongue longer than 10 cm. In order to accommodate it, nature has endowed woodpeckers with a special section of the skull. And at the end of the woodpecker’s tongue there is a small hook, with which it captures small insects hiding under the bark.
Annika Irmler - a girl with a very long tongue
In 2001, she managed to become a record holder, demonstrating her long organ, 7 centimeters long. During the measurement, you had to stick your tongue out of your mouth as much as possible. A 12-year-old girl succeeded. On average, the length of the organ protruding from the mouth is 5 cm. The teenager is very popular among her friends due to this unusualness.
Annika Irmler - very long tongue
The girl admits that after the official announcement of the achievement at school, she had to stick her tongue out at almost every child; everyone was interested to make sure. Friends have told Annika more than once that her tongue is the biggest and someday she will become famous because of it. Irmler is glad that she found herself among unique people.
The longest tongue of an animal
There are a large number of animals that have very long tongues. Until recently, it was believed that the chameleon had the longest tongue. In this animal, the length of the tongue and the length of the body are always approximately the same. On average, the length of the tongue reaches fifty centimeters. In a large and long individual, the tongue is correspondingly longer. It is impossible to see it extended to its full length with the naked eye. Only slow motion can help, since the chameleon throws out its tongue only for 0.05 seconds. By making well-aimed “shots” with their tongues, animals provide themselves with food.
Chameleon tongue reaches record size
The South American bat, which is considered quite rare, has the longest tongue among known mammals. Its tongue is as much as 1.5 times longer than its body. The bat stores its tongue in the chest, and the tongue is somehow compressed three times and is located between the heart and sternum in a special place.
This mammal was discovered only in 2003 in Ecuador. The discoverer was an American biologist, who was very surprised when he determined that the tongue is fifty percent longer than the mouse’s body. So, its length is about 8.5 centimeters, and the body length of this bat is about 5-6 centimeters.
The tongue of a bat is 1.5 times longer than the body
The South American bat feeds on the nectar of a flower with an extremely long corolla. Its name is Centropogon nigricans. Only the tongue of this little bat can “reach” the nectar inside this flower. In half a second, the tongue of a mammal manages to dive for nectar into the “flower tube” seven times. It turns out that these flowers can only be pollinated by this species of bat. It seems that nature created them for each other.
The South American bat uses its long tongue to get its food.
Nick Afanasiev - young actor
Until the guy proved that his organ is the longest, no one had heard of him. Nick is Russian by nationality; as a child, his parents moved from Moscow to the USA. In the states, Afanasyev became famous for his originality. The length of the organ is 8.9 cm, the guy dreamed of becoming famous, becoming a famous actor, he believed that he could succeed, because he was not like everyone else. The young man easily reaches his elbow and nose.
Nick Afanasyev - a man with a long tongue
Once he posted a video on the Internet dedicated to his originality; the views in a short time simply went off scale - more than a million! The man was surprised by such popularity; he did not expect such success. But it was thanks to this that the guy began to fulfill his long-time dream of becoming an actor. He was invited to star in the TV series for teenagers iCarly; today Nick has more than a dozen films in his career.
The “anti-birds” enantiornis had a long tongue that was also designed in reverse.
Reconstruction of the appearance of the enantiornis bird Brevirostruavis macrohyoideus
). Photo from sci-news.com
Among the enantiornithine birds—the bizarre Mesozoic birds that went extinct at the same time as the dinosaurs—were species remarkably similar to today's kingfishers, pittas, and trogons, further demonstrating the amazing power of convergent evolution. Although enantiornithids are at best cousins to modern birds, some of them evolved the same morphological features: one species had ribbon-like tail feathers (like a hummingbird), another had opposable toes (like a parrot), the third has a massive beak (like a toucan). Recently another species was added to this company: Brevirostruavis macrohyoideus
had a strong and long tongue - nothing like this had been found in Enantiornithidae before. It is assumed that brevirostruavis obtained insects from under the bark of trees, like a woodpecker, or sucked sweet nectar from flowers, like honey suckers do.
Enantiornithes birds (Enantiornithes - “anti-birds”, from ancient Greek.
ἐναντίος - opposite and ὄρνις - bird) were the most widespread and numerous group of Mesozoic birds. Among them were tiny creatures no larger than a sparrow and quite impressive creatures the size of a turkey, insectivores and fishermen, lovers of soft worms and shell-covered crustaceans. Having emerged at the beginning of the Cretaceous period, enantiornithids quickly spread throughout the world: today their remains are found on all continents (with the exception of Antarctica). They have reached an unprecedented variety of forms: about a hundred species are already known, which, given their bird-like fragile bones and relatively small size, is a decent number.
Anatomically, Enantiornithidae are quite similar to living birds. It is not surprising that their fossils were initially classified as fan-tailed birds (all modern birds belong to this subclass): Gobipteryx, found in 1974, was considered a relative of the ratites, and Alexornis, discovered in 1976
) - a possible ancestor of today's woodpeckers and kingfishers! Only in 1981, the British paleontologist Cyril Walker drew attention to the strange anatomy of the forelimbs of enantiornithids: it seemed that their joint between the coracoid and the scapula mirrored the similar joint of modern birds (CA Walker, 1981. New subclass of birds from the Cretaceous of South America). Why did Walker propose to give the enantiornithids such a name - “anti-birds”.
Some extinct birds: top row
- enantiornis Iberomesornis (
Iberomesornis
) and ichthyornis (
Ichthyornis
), the closest relative of modern birds;
bottom row
- enantiornis longipteryx (
Longipteryx
) and the mysterious avial sapeornis (
Sapeornis
). Drawing © Gabriel NU from the artist’s personal Twitter
In recent years, new species of Enantiornithidae have been discovered in China. In 2019, Avimaia schweitzerae
), a bird with a preserved egg in the pelvic region, and in 2022, Mirusavis was found there
-
a bird in the skeleton of which a medullary bone was found, indicating that the moment of death of this female fell during the breeding season (see Reproductive biology dinosaurs).
In September of this year, an article was published that described Yuanchuavis ,
the owner of a long tail like the malachite sunbird -
Nectarinia famosa
(M. Wang et al., 2022. An Early Cretaceous enantiornithine bird with a pintail), and in November it was published an article describing Yuornis
,
an unusually large enantiornithine bird, whose beak was not toothed, like most of its relatives, but toothless, like modern birds (L. Xu et al., 2022. A new, remarkably preserved, enantiornithine bird from the Upper Cretaceous Qiupa Formation of Henan (central China) and convergent evolution between enantiornithines and modern birds).
Finally, in early December, an article was published introducing the world to the Brevirostruavis macrohyoideus
, “a short-billed bird with a large tongue.”
The discovery was made in sediments of the famous Jiufotang Formation in northern China, dating back to the Early Cretaceous period. Thanks to this location, we have already learned about Microraptor, became acquainted with Confuciornis and supplemented the lists of extinct animals with a dozen more species of pterosaurs, about twenty new species of birds and several notable dinosaurs. 120 million years ago, on the site of China, there was a vast swampy lowland, over which trees rose here and there: there were few large animals in these parts, but there were as many small and medium-sized animals as you wanted, and Brevirostruavis, which was the size of a tit, fit perfectly into this company.
Holotype of Brevirostruavis (specimen IVPP V13266,
left
) and drawing of the skeleton and integumentary tissues (
right
).
Drawing from the discussed article in the Journal of Anatomy
The skeleton of the animal is perfectly preserved: imprints of plumage and the smallest bones are visible, from the graceful furcula to the pygostyle. However, the greatest attention of researchers was attracted by the animal’s skull: surprisingly short, with jaws studded with small teeth, and an unusually large hyoid apparatus, the length of which was almost equal to the length of the head itself. Drawing an analogy with modern sunbirds and woodpeckers (see picture of the day, Long Tongue of a Woodpecker), which feed on liquid or small food, we can conclude from the structure of the hyoid apparatus of Brevirostruavis that it could stick its tongue out of its mouth. This is the earliest known example of such behavior among birds, predating the appearance of the first woodpecker bird by almost seventy million years.
Of course, the question arises: why did the bird itself need this? The researchers suggested that brevirostruavis fed on small insects, which it pulled out of cracks in the bark with its sticky tongue (like today's woodpeckers). It is also possible that early flowering plants could have seduced this bird: although at the beginning of the Cretaceous there were not so many angiosperms, some animal species could already adapt to feeding on a new type of high-calorie food. Unfortunately, the only known specimen of Brevirostruavis did not preserve stomach contents, so we cannot say for sure what its diet was.
Holotype skull ( left
) and its drawing (
on the right
).
Note the bones highlighted in red
: these are the horns of the hyoid apparatus (ceratobranchiale), whose length determines how far the tongue can protrude from the bird's mouth.
The length of the scale segment
is 1 cm. Figure from the website english.cas.cn
In July of this year, an article was published in which the authors of the description of Brevirostruavis compared the structure of the skull of the enantiornithian bird with the skulls of modern birds (M. Wang et al., 2022. Cretaceous bird with dinosaur skull sheds light on avian cranial evolution). It turned out that the kinetic skull of modern birds was not characteristic of enantiornithids: rather, their skulls resembled dinosaurs, were rigid and rather inactive. It is assumed that this feature significantly limited the ability of enantiornithids to expand their own diet, therefore, in order to learn how to catch small insects from narrow crevices or feed on liquid food, Brevirostruavis had to shorten its own jaws and acquire a long, mobile tongue.
What is curious is that in this matter the enantiornhis brevirostruavis did not follow the evolutionary path later trodden by its cousins: in it, the main part of the hyoid apparatus consists of elongated ceratobranchial (“hornobranchial”, ceratobranchiale) bones, formed from the corresponding element of the fish gill arch. In modern birds, a significant proportion of horns are made up of epibranchial bones (“epibranchial” bones), which are completely absent in early birds (J. Jung et al., 2016. Structural analysis of the tongue and hyoid apparatus in a woodpecker). It turns out that both enantiornithids and fan-tailed birds, faced with a similar problem - the need to stick their tongue out of their mouths - solved it in a similar way, using those bones of the hyoid apparatus that were available.
The discovery of brevirostruavis has further expanded our knowledge of enantiornithine birds - an amazing line of birds that, in the course of evolution, acquired many of the features of modern birds, but did it topsy-turvy. It is possible that it was these features, even though they allowed Enantiornithidae to dominate in the Mesozoic era, that ultimately led to their extinction: at the end of the Cretaceous period, having existed on the planet for at least sixty-five million years, these amazing birds disappeared from the face of the Earth without a trace.
Source:
Z. Li, M. Wang, T. A. Stidham, Z. Zhou, J. Clarke.
Novel evolution of a hyper-elongated tongue in a Cretaceous enantiornithine from China and the evolution of the hyolingual apparatus and feeding in birds // Journal of Anatomy
. 2022. DOI: 10.1111/joa.13588.
Anna Novikovskaya
Chanel Tapper - Women's Champion
The record holder from the Guinness Book of Records comes from the USA. Its organ reaches 9.75 centimeters in length from the tip of the tongue to the upper lip. Chanel first discovered her originality at the age of 8, during a Halloween photo shoot with her mother. In one photo, both showed their tongues and made funny faces. During a detailed examination of the photograph, Chanel clearly saw that her organ was twice as long as her mother’s. Then Tapper's classmates began to notice this, and she even became popular at school for demonstrating a trick during which she reaches her nose.
Chanel Tapper - world record holder for longest tongue
The girl admits that today requests to reach her elbow or nose are familiar to her, she has long gotten used to popularity, but she never ceases to show the uniqueness of the organ. The student did not immediately decide to submit an application to the Guinness Book of Records. She wondered if she needed to be so popular, to show off her tongue to the whole world. After thinking carefully, I finally decided that I would really like to become famous. Measurements were taken, after which the girl was officially recognized as the owner of the world's largest, longest tongue among a female representative. If you stick it out to its full length, the organ appears even below the chin. The student understands that maybe her achievement does not seem very pleasant or understandable to someone, but she herself has no problems with it. After all, the girl was born this way, so she is not shy about this uniqueness.
Komodo dragon
Adult monitor lizards grow up to 3 m in length and weigh about 70 km. Moreover, the lizard has a 70-centimeter tongue, with which they can easily kill a large bull. But for this they do not need to attack their victim and fight with her in a duel. It is enough for a monitor lizard to sting its victim with its tongue, and then everything will be done by its saliva. It turns out that the Komodo dragon’s saliva contains a huge amount of decay products, which, when they enter the victim’s blood, infect it. And the monitor lizard can only wait for the moment when the toxic substances begin to act.
Adrianna Lewis - unusual fame
Another American woman, whose originality lies in her very long mouth organ, a little more than 10 cm long, the whole world knows about it. Lewis posted a video where she demonstrates the longest, largest organ in full length; hundreds of thousands of curious Internet users watched the video. The organ is very similar to a snake, it easily reaches the elbow, the tip of the nose, the girl even manages to reach her eyes. Negotiations were actively conducted with representatives of the Guinness Book, the girl was successfully able to officially register the achievement, which she is very proud of.
Adrianna Lewis has the biggest tongue among women
Lewis's mother was the first to notice her daughter's uniqueness when she was 12 years old. The woman noted that the organ was amazing in size when the child began to grimace or eat ice cream. The girl’s abilities amazed those around her, she is not shy, she even loves to surprise others. Adrianna is often photographed with her mouth open, and her images have appeared in several print publications. Lewis even created her own channel on YouTube, where she clearly shows her original abilities and various tricks. The girl is accustomed to unflattering comments from others and Internet users, but this does not stop her.
Byron Schlenker - language record holder
The cheerful American looks completely ordinary from the outside; as soon as he opens his mouth, it becomes clear why the person is unique. Byron has the world's largest tongue, measuring 8.6 centimeters wide. This width is greater than the length of the beer mat, wider than the iPhone 6 by a couple of centimeters. Byron discovered this feature by accident. Having decided to help my daughter in the library with a school project, I became interested in looking at a copy of the Guinness Book of Records. Schlenker decided to independently measure his oral organ, after which he was convinced that it was wider than the record holder recorded in the Book by a whole centimeter.
Byron Schlenker - owner of the largest tongue
Of course, the whole family decided that they needed to apply to become the current world record holder. Now the man is a local celebrity in his hometown, which he is very happy about. The wife admits that the couple’s mutual friends never stop making fun of them, but she tries not to pay attention. Byron is very popular among local residents; people often stop him in a store or other public places and want to take a photo. Strangers on the street ask to sign copies of the Guinness Book of Books.
Emily Schlenker - uniqueness by inheritance
The girl is the daughter of the previous world record holder; her uniqueness was inherited. The width of the organ is smaller than that of her father and is 7.3 cm, however, she and her father were included in the Guinness Book of Records as the couple with the largest tongues in the world.
Emily Schlenker is the daughter of the most tongue-in-cheek dad
When the father suggested that the child register a world record together, she didn’t even want to hear about it. But after repeated measurements, finally making sure that Emily’s oral organ was indeed larger, wider than the recorded record holder, although smaller than her father’s, the decision was made to submit an application.
Yagya Katuval - unique and funny
A young man from Nepal surprises not only with his appearance. He looks funny, as soon as he starts grimacing using his very large, long tongue, some people around him become perplexed. Yagya works as a school bus driver, local kids know him well, some are even afraid of him. The length of a man’s organ is very amazing, with which he can reach his forehead. To get into the Book of Records, Katuval is going to show the world two tricks in one:
- completely cover your nose with your lower lip
- lick your forehead at the same time
Yagya Katuval is a funny and amazing person.
Since childhood, Yagya noticed the unusualness of the organ, while his peers could not reach his nose with his tongue, it easily reached his forehead. A friend of this unusual man says that Katuwal began performing all sorts of tricks after he lost all his teeth except one. Yagya himself admits that even some adults avoid him, they are afraid to approach him. But he is not particularly upset; he dreams of officially becoming a world record holder. He also dreams of acting in a movie, perhaps even in a horror film; for filming, he claims, he doesn’t even need makeup. The man admits that in the morning he spends a lot of time cleaning his large tongue. If he has no teeth at all except one, then he has to tinker with his tongue.
Yagya Katuval
Nepali Yagya Katuwal is also an ambitious person who wants to become famous throughout the world. His unique capabilities, namely the unusual structure of the lower jaw and long tongue, allowed him to claim a place in the Book of Records.
Katuval grimaces with all his might, using the features of his body: licks his forehead, covers his nose with his lower lip, etc. The man also has only one tooth, which adds even more curiosity to his image.
Yagya works as a school bus driver, often horrifying little passengers. Even adults sometimes shy away from an eccentric man. Katuvala is no longer upset by this; on the contrary, he dreams of starring in a horror film and getting into a big movie.
Radmila Yusupova - without complexes
The girl from Ufa noticed her individuality in childhood, when she decided to get on television. Then her mother told her: “To get on the screen, you need to be different from others, think about what’s special about you and tell me.” Radmila looked at herself in the mirror for a long time, grimaced, smiled and noted that her tongue was large and long, which was not a peculiarity. The girl’s mother initially rejected such conclusions, claiming that the organ was the same as everyone else’s. But after measuring I was very surprised; the length of the organ reached more than 11 cm.
Radmila Yusupova - famous for having the longest tongue
Today Yusupova has an account on Instagram and YouTube, where she regularly demonstrates masterly tongue tricks in photos and videos. Surprisingly, the girl has a lot of fans. She dreams of acting in films and becoming a famous singer. Radmila studies at the Faculty of Medicine, plays drums in her uncle’s band, and performs in a cafe.
