The scoop on how your cat’s sandpapery tongue deep cleans

WASHINGTON >> Cat lovers know when kitties groom, their tongues are pretty scratchy. Using high-tech scans and some other tricks, scientists learned how those sandpapery tongues help cats get clean and stay cool.

The secret: Tiny hooks spring up on the tongue — with scoops built in to carry saliva deep into all that fur.

Mechanical engineers reported the findings Monday saying they could lead to inventions for pets and people.

“Their tongue could help us apply fluids, or clean carpets, or apply medicine” to skin, said Georgia Tech lead researcher Alexis Noel, seeking a patent for a 3D-printed, tongue-inspired brush.

Cats are fastidious, spending up to a quarter of their waking hours grooming. Noel’s interest was piqued when her cat, Murphy, got his tongue stuck in a fuzzy blanket. Scientists had long thought cat tongues were studded with tiny coneshaped bumps. Noel, working in a lab known for animal-inspired engineering, wondered why.

First, CT scans of cats’ tongues showed they’re not covered in solid cones but in claw-shaped hooks. They lie flat and rear-facing, out of the way until, with a twitch of the tongue muscle, the little spines spring straight up, she explained.

The big surprise: Those spines contain hollow scoops, Noel found. Turning to zoos and taxidermists for preserved tongues to examine, she found bobcats, cougars, snow leopards, even lions and tigers share that trait.

When Noel touched the tips of preserved spines — called papillae — with drops of food dye, they wicked up the liquid. A housecat’s nearly 300 papillae hold a small amount of saliva that’s released when the tongue presses on fur, and then they wick up some more.

ALEXIS NOEL — GEORGIA TECH VIA AP The surface of a cat’s tongue.