Home / Series / Today I Found Out / Aired Order / Season 2020 / Episode 48

The Parasite That Becomes a Usable Tongue

SUBSCRIBE to Business Blaze: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYY5GWf7MHFJ→→Subscribe for new videos every day! https://www.youtube.com/user/TodayIFoundOut?sub_confirmation=1 Follow Simon on social media: https://twitter.com/SimonWhistler https://www.instagram.com/simonwhistler/ Never run out of things to say at the water cooler with TodayIFoundOut! Brand new videos 7 days a week! More from TodayIFoundOut: The Fruit That Tastes Like Chocolate Pudding, Is White Chocolate Actually Chocolate, and Much More https://youtu.be/Owvyq93M00Y What's the Difference Between a Pony and a Horse, and a Donkey and a Mule? https://youtu.be/U5Jh-jBlNoM In this video: A member of the family Cymothoidae, the tiny Cymothoa exigua, or tongue eating louse, enters its victim through the gills. Once inside, the female latches onto the base of the fish’s tongue, while the male attaches behind her or on the gills. Through her front claws, she sucks the fish’s blood, which causes the tongue to die and drop off. She will then re-attach, this time to the tongue stub, effectively becoming its replacement. With an eww factor of 10, the fish can and will use the parasite as if it were its natural tongue. Want the text version?: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/07/the-parasite-that-becomes-a-tongue/ Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymothoa_exigua http://eol.org/pages/126897/overview http://www.galapagos.org/pdf/Noticias62.pdf#page=23 http://www.desertmuseum.org/center/seaofcortez/docs/brusca_gilligan_1983.pdf

English
  • Originally Aired March 4, 2020
  • Runtime 11 minutes
  • Production Code viHLN68bTL4
  • Created September 19, 2020 by
    Administrator admin
  • Modified September 19, 2020 by
    Administrator admin