I have visited a zoo as a undergraduate veterinary student as a volunteer. I searched the tongue of the basking crocodile. I asked the zoo vet about the missing tongue of the crocodile. He laughed and explained about the crocodile tongue.

Generally mouth of the crocodile makes up 15% of its body length. All the crocodiles are having a long thin forked tongue, but fused at the bottom of its mouth. So we can’t either see the tongue while it is basking or opening its mouth to capture its prey.

Length of the Crocodile Tongue

I measured the length of the tongue while performing postmortem of the same as a Zoo vet after my graduation. The length of the crocodile tongue is more or less 300-350 cms (this is a measurement of a crocodile of a 3 meters in length).

Additional Facts

The crocodile possess salt glands on their tongue, which is a modified salivary glands. The main purpose of this gland is to secrete excess salt from its body. Thats why salt water crocodile can spend weeks together in salt water.

As bottom line, I would like to conclude that this massive creature cannot stick out the tongue.