Small lizard packs powerful tongue

Rhampholeon spinosus

Like other chameleons, Rhampholeon spinosus (shown) probably achieves such astounding power and acceleration of its tongue by contracting muscles and thereby loading them with potential energy like a catapult. 

Christopher V. Anderson

Size matters for chameleons and their projectile tongues.

Christopher Anderson, a biologist at Brown University in Providence, R.I.,