Those of us who have cats know that they are sweet, adorable creatures, with a lot of class and that they rarely show their true feelings. But when they do, they leave a mark that we do not forget ... because when they give you kisses you remember that they have a raspy tongue.
You know why? To answer this question we must see its language in detail. This has small very thin brushes called papillae:
As well as humans, but these are different:
Why do they have that shape?
According to veterinarian Aly Semigran, the papillae are made of keratin like our nails and that's why they are shaped like miniature claws.
The papillae allow the cats to undo hair knots, distribute correctly the natural oils found in the skin and hair and eliminate parasites with everything and eggs. As hunters they prevent their smell from being perceived by their prey and prevent future infections in turn.
According to an MIT study led by Drs. Roman Stocker, Pedro Reis, Jeffrey Aristoff and Sunghwan Jung, the tongue of the cats and the papillae also serve to raise water, since they can not suck due to the shape of their lips.
When tonguing they create a column of water that the cat will bite to drink.
As an additional detail, Dr. Alexis Noel, from the Hu laboratory of biomechanics, assures that cats tend to lick those beings that have their trust, so if your cat does he fully trusts you.