The human tongue is perhaps the most interesting body part, right after the femur that is. This graphic displays some of the most zany statistics about not only the human tongue, but the animal tongue as well. What kind of animals? How about the whale? The tongue of a whale weighs a measly 5,400 pounds and is the size of an elephant. That’s really a very scary thought when you think about it. To think that every blue whale out there has an elephant in its mouth? Golly! Ok, enough Leave it to Beaver moments. Let’s get down to business–tongue business.

This graphic is filled with useful tidbits, such as the fact that the idiom “the cat got your tongue” has roots in ancient Assyria. Apparently, in those golden days, conquered soldiers and criminals had their tongues taken out as punishment and fed to the king’s cat. I’m sure all two people who actually use the expression, “cat got your tongue” will be pleased to know that. Then again, they probably already did.

Here’s another gem in the graphic. A series of intense scientific tests on identical twins have shown that the ability to roll one’s tongue into a tube shape is not a genetic trait. Sibling rivalry over tongue matters can now be elevated.

Infographics Scorecard

Design: A

This graphic is one of the most well-designed we’ve ever had on this site. The designer was dealt a difficult set of cards; he was given a topic that’s not necessarily the most interesting to draw and told to make an entire graphic out of it. And the designer delivered, so he should be commended for that. I do have one knock on the design (he was given an A, so the knock isn’t too harsh, but it’s there.) That knock is simply that creative things weren’t done with the tongues. There could have a been a depiction of the tongues dancing to demonstrate their ability to help with singing. Or perhaps, to demonstrate how long the longest tongue in history is, the illustrator could have made a tongue wrap around the entire graphic. So, that’s my one knock. It’s a soft one, but it’s there.

Content: A

I’m awarding an A on the content side as well. What a stupendous set of facts! A tongue, by its nature, is boring. So, it would have been easy for the creator to just say, “Darn. I can only find boring facts. Welp, I suppose I’ll be putting together a boring infographic, as a result.” But the creator did not. He took a potentially boring topic and made it unbelievably entertaining. And that’s commendable.

Download this infographic.