Scientists may have finally nailed down exactly why a frog's sticky tongue is so effective for catching prey.

Observing the South American horned frog, researchers analyzed how sticky the frogs' tongues are as well as how much weight they could capture, National Geographic reported.  

When it comes to bringing in prey, "frog tongue adhesive forces are enormous--on average 1.4 times their body weight," said study co-author Thomas Kleinteich, who works in functional morphology and biomechanics research at Kiel University in Germany, as quoted by National Geographic.

"Translated into human dimensions," he said, "that would be an 80-kilogram [176-pound] person lifting 112 kilograms [246 pounds] just by using his or her tongue. And they do this within milliseconds" of latching onto their prey.

Publishing their findings in Scientific Reports, Kleinteich and colleague Stanislav Gorb found that horned frogs have this incredible sticking power even though gecko feet, another strong natural adhesive, are actually 15 times stickier than a frog's tongue. They measured how powerful the frog's tongues were by putting crickets behind glass for the frogs to try to catch. 

While they leave behind slime, frog's tongues are actually less dependent on mucus than previously thought, Kleinteich said.

"People tend to think that the mucus acts as some sort of superglue," he said. "But our results suggest that less mucus results in better adhesion."

The horned frog's diet includes insects along with larger creatures including lizards, snakes, rodents, other frogs and small birds.

The frog's tongues move quickly to catch swiftly moving prey, but they may also snap out of their mouths in milliseconds to allow for greater force, which lets the frog's tongue stick more firmly to reel in larger prey, the Los Angeles Times reported.

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