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Zoology

Twice bitten

Nature volume 449, pages 33–34 (2007)Cite this article

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.

Many animals swallow their prey whole. Snakes come to mind, of course; but amphibians, lizards, birds and thousands of fish species can also attack, and gulp down, prey nearly as large as their head — imagine swallowing a peanut-butter sandwich or a salmon whole and you get some idea of how remarkable a feat that is. The methods by which animals do this vary from the suction feeding of fishes1 to the 'unhinged-jaw' mechanism of snakes2 and the inertial feeding of lizards and birds3. (For inertial feeding, picture a pelican thrusting its head upward to use gravity to choke down a large fish.)

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Figure 1: Video action.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mark W. Westneat is in the Department of Zoology and Biodiversity Synthesis Center, Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 South Lakeshore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605-2496, USA. mwestneat@fieldmuseum.org,

    Mark W. Westneat

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  1. Mark W. Westneat
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Westneat, M. Twice bitten. Nature 449, 33–34 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/449033b

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