Editor's Summary
6 September 2007
Up in the mouth
Most fish capture their prey by opening their mouths, sucking them in and then processing them with 'pharyngeal' jaws, a second set of jaws, derived from the gill skeleton, that lies deep within the throat. Moray eels, though, have a problem. Despite being rapacious predators, they are too long and narrow for conventional suction mechanisms to work. So instead of sucking food down to the pharyngeal jaws, these jaws project forward into the mouth cavity and seize the prey — an innovation that may have contributed to the success of morays as reef predators. It all sounds rather spectacular, so it's worth watching the movie on http://tinyurl.com/2ybys3.
News and Views: Zoology: Twice bitten
The toothy visage of a moray eel is a fearsome sight. The discovery that morays can thrust a second pair of jaws out from their throat to wolf down prey whole increases their predatory reputation still further.
Mark W. Westneat
doi:10.1038/449033b
Letter: Raptorial jaws in the throat help moray eels swallow large prey
Rita S. Mehta & Peter C. Wainwright
doi:10.1038/nature06062
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