What makes a Blue Tongue Skinks tongue blue?
Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 9:37 pm
Really curious! I know it's used for defense, but what causes the color?
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What makes a Blue Tongue Skinks tongue blue?
https://www.bluetongueskinks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=16988
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Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 4:57 am
Pigment. Seriously. Just like the melanin in your skin.
Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 7:48 am
They eat a lot of smurfs 
Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 7:58 am
Alioop wrote:They eat a lot of smurfs
-is going to go try that-
Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 4:42 pm
A cut and paste from when the same question was asked a couple of months ago.
In the Dreamtime a hunter had no luck securing food for his people. He had a camp in which a skink had been sharing his fire and in his anger he blamed the skink for his misfortune. He told himself that if he came back the next day without any game it would be the fault of the skink bringing him bad luck and he would kill it.
The following day he returned again without anything and decided the skink would have to be killed. He picked up his spear but just before he threw it he remembered the people who lived near his own people had the skink as a totem and knew that if he did kill the skink they would seek pay back on him and his people. Because he was still angry and believed the skink was at fault, he reached down and picked up a rock and threw it at the skink. Just as the rock reached the skink's mouth it yawned and the rock hit it in its open mouth. However, because the hunter had not looked at what he threw he did not know it was not a rock but a clump of dry blue ochre which shattered in the skink's mouth. That is why up to this day the skink has a blue tongue.
In the Dreamtime a hunter had no luck securing food for his people. He had a camp in which a skink had been sharing his fire and in his anger he blamed the skink for his misfortune. He told himself that if he came back the next day without any game it would be the fault of the skink bringing him bad luck and he would kill it.
The following day he returned again without anything and decided the skink would have to be killed. He picked up his spear but just before he threw it he remembered the people who lived near his own people had the skink as a totem and knew that if he did kill the skink they would seek pay back on him and his people. Because he was still angry and believed the skink was at fault, he reached down and picked up a rock and threw it at the skink. Just as the rock reached the skink's mouth it yawned and the rock hit it in its open mouth. However, because the hunter had not looked at what he threw he did not know it was not a rock but a clump of dry blue ochre which shattered in the skink's mouth. That is why up to this day the skink has a blue tongue.
Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 11:42 pm
I like the aboriginal explanation. It's much more colorful.
Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 11:52 pm
It is blue due to the presence of Haemocyanin, a bluish, copper-containing protein with an oxygen-carrying function similar to that of haemoglobin. Because of the capillary-rich, well oxygenated tissue in the tongue, the tongue presents as blue. 
Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2011 4:10 pm
LeaBilby wrote:It is blue due to the presence of Haemocyanin, a bluish, copper-containing protein with an oxygen-carrying function similar to that of haemoglobin. Because of the capillary-rich, well oxygenated tissue in the tongue, the tongue presents as blue.
Yeah, and that Haemocyanin stuff is what came out of the rock that the hunter guy threw into the skink's mouth.
Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2011 4:35 pm
Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 5:09 am
Nah. Sorry Lea. Don't believe you!!! I think El Lobo's explanation is the truth!
I think El Lobo's explanation is the truth! Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 5:33 am
Methinks Jeff's answer is the best of both worlds. 
Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 2:58 pm
Lauriek wrote:Nah. Sorry Lea. Don't believe you!!!
