The extra-long tongue of the lorikeet is, at first glance, highly reminiscent of the pharyngeal jaws on the Alien franchise’s titular beastie — but this bird’s exploratory organ is decidedly less lethal. At the end of the fictional extraterrestrial’s oral appendage you find extra teeth; at the end of the lorikeet’s you find tufts of papillae (extremely fine, bristle-like projectons) which have earned this bird the nickname of “brush-tongued parrot.”
These bristles help lorikeets feed on pollen and nectar from a variety of flowers and soft fruits — a far cry from the skull-punching function of xenomorph dentition.
