Comments on: What’s the deal with blue tongues?

By: Russell

Russell — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:48:36 +0000

Tounges are blue in larger mammals when vessels run along the insides and veins run along the outside.
Viens are the blue because they de-oxygenated blood back to the heart. It can be to do with cooling down.

I think this information is correct. Me and my friend were arguing about it in a pub once when someone stepped in and set us straight.

By: Carlos Dan

Carlos Dan — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:46:51 +0000

Excelent article dude! An interesting topic that of blue tongues, always called my attention.
I’m going to quote you in my blog.

By: Libbie

Libbie — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:29:38 +0000

It’s thought that the blue tongues of the giraffidae evolved to help prevent sunburn. After all, that tongue pokes out quite a lot while they’re browsing. I can see how it could be vulnerable to sunburn.

The blue tongue of the chow chow is simply the same dark pigment (eumelanin) that makes the chow chow’s skin black. Many, many dogs have black spots on their tongues and on the roofs of their mouths. You can think of them kind of like birth marks or beauty marks. Chow chows (and shar-peis, which also have blue-black tongues) were just selectively bred to have larger and larger “tongue birth marks” until the entire tongue shows dark in most individuals in the breed. It’s common for dog owners to think that because their dog has a dark tongue or tongue spots that it’s part chow or shar-pei, but in fact pigmented tongues are very common in all breeds.

I used to be a dog trainer and show dog handler, which is why I know so much about dog tongues. Ha ha ha.

By: inkytwist

inkytwist — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:11:44 +0000

Hey, what happened to you? Where’d you go! I miss your posts… Uglorable is such a cool idea.

By: raptorred

raptorred — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:42:33 +0000

oh man, now I want to know, too

By: Grace

Grace — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:25:13 +0000

That is pleasingly random. I don’t know of any good answer either.