Imagine sprinting full-speed into a solid oak tree at 15 miles per hour — and then doing it again and again, 20 times per second. For almost any vertebrate, this would be fatal — but for a woodpecker, ...

A woodpecker’s tongue can reach one-third of its body length. This long tongue wraps around the bird’s skull, acting as a built-in helmet to absorb and redistribute forceful impacts. Different ...