The human tongue is a large muscle that takes up most of the space in your bottom jaw. It ends right before your throat:

the tongue

The tongue ends (posterior) at what is known as the oropharynx, which is a part of our voice box. The oropharynx starts from (approximately) our uvula (the dangling tissue at the back of our mouth).

Your tongue is attached to the soft tissue of your lower jaw and a small bone in your neck called the hyoid bone. It’s basically a big muscle topped with a layer that gives important information to your brain about flavor, temperature, and touch. It helps us taste, talk, swallow, chew, even keep our teeth clean.

The tongue of a woodpecker is so long that it wraps around its whole skull. It uses its tongue for hunting. Check out the pictures:

woodpecker tongues

Anteaters, frogs, and certain lizards also hunt with their tongues. A frog’s tongue is attached to the front of its jaw, but not the back. This may allow it to “throw” its tongue further out. A lot of these animals that hunt with their tongues have sticky tongues, but some have tongues with barbs.

Giraffes gather leaves off thorny trees with their long tongues. Their tongues also have a very dark color. Can you think why? For an answer, see:

giraffes tongue

In the back of the mouth, the tongue is anchored into the hyoid bone.

The tongue attaches to the hyoid bone underneath the jaw.