Ballistic movement can be defined as muscle contractions that exhibit maximum velocities and accelerations over a very short period of time.
The function of the antagonist muscle contraction is believed to control the amplitude and timing of ballistic movements.
Muscle work is applied to these elastic elements over a relatively slow period of time, and is released very rapidly.
[3] Higher power output is produced because the energy is released in a much shorter amount of time than it is stored.
[4] Ballistic systems are capable of power outputs that are significantly greater than that of the muscles associated with the actual movement.
The toad feeding was observed across a range of temperatures (11–35 °C), and the kinematic, dynamic, and electromyographic variables were measured and analyzed.
Over the 11–35 °C temperature range, the ballistic movements had Q10 values very close to 1 (Q10 = 0.99–1.25), signifying thermal independence and supporting the main hypothesis.
[7] It was discovered that veiled chameleons (Chamaeleo calyptratus) were able to perform this high-performance tongue projection, and successful prey capture, across a wide range of temperatures (15 °C–35 °C).
Anderson and Deban also found a contrast between thermal dependence of tongue projection and retraction (which is not elastically-powered).
This further supports the hypothesis that the elastic recoil mechanism is responsible for the decreased thermal dependence of ballistic tongue projection.
In trap-jaw ants (Odontomachus bauri) ballistic movement can be seen in their extremely rapid mandible strikes.
[9] In the cone snail (Conus catus) ballistic movement can be seen in the way that it fires is harpoon-like radular tooth into its prey.
[10] In Salamanders, Toads, and Chameleons ballistic movement can be seen in their tongue projection which is controlled by an elastic recoil mechanism.
The internal fiber angles are approximately 45 degrees, which is the theoretical optimum to create an equal strain throughout the accelerator muscles.
Those movements are executed “with a pattern of bursts in the agonist and antagonist muscles of fairly constant duration but different amplitude…” (Acornero et al.