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The human tongue is a muscular hydrostat, which, like a water balloon, must maintain the same overall volume when its shape changes.

An elephant’s proboscis, like a human tongue, is a type of muscular hydrostat: it has no bones, so it can move in myriad ways.

Rather, they intertwine to create a flexible matrix, forming what is called a muscular hydrostat; this structure is similar to an octopus’s tentacles or an elephant’s trunk.

The researchers will also include in the study another invertebrate, whose body is a muscular hydrostat–the famous C. elegans roundworm.