So owners compete to lure the swiftlets by playing recordings of the clicking sounds they make as they echolocate.

Bottlenose dolphins possess impressive senses, not least of which is their bat-like ability to echolocate — or blast soundwaves to detect prey and other objects.

"We took fine measurements of that inner ear bone and compared it with that in the bats that do echolocate today and bats that don't, and it sits in the middle of the ones that echolocate."

Not all bats echolocate, Prof. Hand explains.

Salamanders whipping out sticky tongues longer than their bodies to snag insects; snakes “smelling” their environment with their forked tongue tips; hummingbirds slurping nectar from deep inside flowers; bats clicking their tongues to echolocate—all show how tongues have enabled vertebrates to exploit every terrestrial nook and cranny.