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Some Moray Eels Have Two Sets of Jaws
mikesd81 writes that the Mercury News reports that scientists at UC Davis have discovered that some eels have an extra set of jaws deep in their throats that launch forward into their mouths to help pull prey in. "'It looks like a funny pair of forceps with curved sharp teeth,' said evolutionary biologist Rita Mehta, lead author of the research, which appears Thursday in Nature. Before the discovery, scientists thought that all aquatic predators swallowed their prey using suction. By dropping the lower jaw and creating a flow of water into their mouths, they draw in the prey. The two species of moray eels studied by Mehta and Wainwright are the first examples of an alternative feeding method. Instead of sucking, one of these eels bites its prey with its primary set of teeth. It then draws the second set of teeth into its mouth by contracting long muscles. The secondary jaws clamp down on the prey, allowing the eel to move its primary jaws forward in a gulping motion to take in more of the prey. The two sets of jaws take turns until the whole animal has been swallowed." mikesd81 adds a link to a YouTube video of an eel eating, noting "If you look closely right around 34 seconds you can see what looks like the other set of jaws chewing."
Well, this certainly seems odd, but, heh, who am I to question the work of the Almighty? Oh, we thank you Lord for this mighty fine intelligent design! Good job!
OMG - ALIEN! Defrost Ripley RIGHT NOW!
From the original source of information and in the Journal Nature's News, these jaws are definitely not for chewing. If you look at the images of x-rays you will see that these are more 'hooks' or teeth than jaws.
In the rest of the articles, they talk about this mearly being the method by which the eel pulls the food down or holds on to it. I don't believe any fish (or snakes for that matter) really 'chew' their food.
I think what you are seeing in that video is the extra skin around the inner part of the mouth billow out as the animal attempts to suck the food in (which as mentioned, most fish do). I don't know a lot about eels so I can't verify that the eel in that video is a moray eel much less one of the kinds that have that kind of device to ingest food. There's over 200 species of moray eels so I guess it would be futile to try and verify it. Still an interesting video but I predict you would see that kind of action when any fish feeds.
My work here is dung.
When an eel bites your face, that's a moray.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Could this be a hint that sharks may have evolved from eels? Sharks certainly have multiple sets of teeth, and this seems to be a possible first step from one to the other.
Am I missing something here?
My blog
My Eel is full of teeth.
H.R. Geiger better be notified, the Eel is copying his Xenomorph Alien! Best get Ridley Sct and James Cameron involved too!
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
this cant be good, a second set of jaws?
those films were bad enough the first time round!
Clearly evolution is taking a page from James Camerons book - we gotta intervene before they start laying eggs with flying things in, and birthing from inside peoples chests!
Anybody else feeling like there's a certain Sci-Fi channel mediocre miniseries in our near future?
Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:
Peter: That's what...
Brian: If you say "that's what she said" one more time, I am gonna pop you.
stuff |
That's nothing.
Peter
I smoked pot once. But I DID NOT inhale. Will you hire me?
I say we dust off and nuke the oceans from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Then specimens turned up with a doubly articulated reptilian jaw and series of fossil discoveries that show that the middle bones of the doubly articulated jaw moved into the ear canal and became the middle ear bones conducting sound! The missing link was really a linking bone! And God lost one more place to exist.
It is all very interesting to me, but still I don't think this story deserves to be on the front page.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
From TFA:
"It's like a scene from an Aliens movie: a scaly underwater creature looking something like a piranha crossed with a python strikes at its prey which is then reeled deeper into the beast's throat by a second set of toothy jaws."
Too bad moray eels don't actually have scales...
If you can't beat them, embrace and extend them.
Further on this, according to NASA, 50 double-jawed Moray Eels can chew 100 objects simultaniously. Even further, 100 double-jawed Moray Eels can chew 200 objects.
Halfway down on the left side: "Watch the Moray Eel"
y Id=14194579
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?stor
Neither do the Aliens.
We've got to close the beaches!
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
And, BTW, this is high-speed video of the second jaws in action.
Those are the shrieking eels! If you don't believe me, just wait. They always grow louder when they're about to feed on human flesh!
Would not eel anatomists have made this discovery years ago?
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Game Over, Man - GAME OVER!
I think the majority of Moray Eels are nocturnal creatures so "They Mostly Come Out at Night...Mostly"
When the tide rises high
And a snake bites your thigh,
That's a moray!
--
make install -not war
I'd think the structure described (no pics?) would be pretty apparent?
Or did they just think they were vestigal?
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
Many years ago, somebody actually did write a moray-eel spoof of Dean Martin's "That's Amore". IIRC it was made popular by a group named "Barefoot and Andy", who had numerous scuba-themed songs and played in various clubs near scuba resorts in the Caribbean, including the Cayman Islands (where I heard them once.)
You can find the lyrics at the bottom of this page:
http://www.ukdivers.net/life/morays.htm
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
"Instead of sucking, one of these ... bites ... with its primary set of teeth. ...then ... The ... jaws clamp down ... in a gulping motion to take in more ... until the whole ... has been swallowed."
If that doesn't conjure up images of open sores, I don't know what will!
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Thank you, kdawson. That WILL be all. ......FILE STATUS: CLOSED.
Run away!!!
I wonder what these guys think of this discovery..
A second jaw is not new. In fact, it is a defining characteristic of some fish (cichlids) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cichlid#Anatomy_and_a ppearance.
Cichlids are a great example of evolution, with some species only a couple thousand years old. The second jaw is thought to be why they are so successful and diverse.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
Over two decades ago, I noticed a second set of jaws in a moray eel on display at a local pet store.
If I had known that such an observation was newsworthy, I'd have shown it to more than just my brother and father.
Since I see this as a non-story, I'll offer an anecdote:
Seeing the second set made me even more afraid of morays - they're creepy enough with just one set. The worst was seeing one with a body cross section similar in size to a 3 liter soda bottle just a few yards from me while SCUBA diving. Daggers for teeth. That thing could have easily killed anyone in the group. Not something you want to meet that far under water, protected only by a bathing suit and basic SCUBA gear.
BTW, even though the article makes SciFi comparisons, this article should not be categorized under SciFi. Otherwise, every subject should be categorized under SciFi (find me a subject that cannot be compared to SciFi).
This is not my sig
/takes coat 'n leaves
I wish my girlfriend did.... one is allways getting worn out...
and the pain makes you beg
that's a moray
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Ass.
"Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand" - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Okay. That was random. Lie down, elevate your head above your rectum (to reverse the flow).
Perhaps you're consuming too many petroleum products.
I suggest sequestering some carbon, take two aspirin, and post again in the morning.
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
After reading the description, the first thing I thought of was the goatse photo... Something is very wrong with me
Some eels have been reported to fight off predators with their thick green acid blood.
They're using their grammar skills there.
...of the movie Aliens where that internal mouth comes out of the main mouth? What's a redundant?
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
Who wants to talk about whether global warming exists or not(or war, the economy, our disappearing rights, etc.) when GAY PEOPLE ARE GETTING MARRIED! Come on people, focus! Won't somebody think of the straight children??
"But this one goes to 11!"
Morays are saltwater animals. The fish in the video isn't a moray eel, it's a freshwater tropical fish from a petshop, probably Symbranchius marmorotus. Both it and real morays are covered in this months issue of Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine.
I've had S. marmorotus before. They're much less agitated at feeding time than this one is. It mush have been really hungry. Uut you know the lemming story, it's just like Hollywoo... uh, youtube to distort things.
Need Mercedes parts ?
Hey if you are into intelligent design check out the awesomely designed tongue replacement parasite.
Roll down to "Friday Parasite #10: Tongue Rolling"
Now only a loving creator could create such a lovable creature such as that.
I for one welcome... oh hell, you know the rest.
Sorry to insult your religion. - unassimilatible
Ack! Just when I'd gotten over my vagina dentata fear!
captcha: wedding (tackle)
I was about to make the same comment as you, but I decided to Google first.
t ermoray.php
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/predatory/freshwa
Anyway, many fish actually have "teeth" near their throat. Anybody who's ever gutted a relatively large carnivorous fish has probably seen this, though the teeth are more like extensions of the gills. Even my 2-inch bettas have some kind of grinders in their throat. I can hear the crunching sounds they make when they chew on pellets.
ngnggnghghhhh....
Dean Martin might have sung it like this:
... that's a Moray."
"What is that thing with the great ugly teeth
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Exactly! In fact gay marriage is MORE LIKELY to lead to dual-jawed mutant eels than global warming! However, both of these threats to our environment have a sinister common factor - Dihydrogen Monoxide! BAN DHMO!
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
Most fish have pharyngeal jaws, although they are normally used for crushing rather than 'biting', having bony plates or small teeth. The moray eels have pharyngeal jaws that are used for grabbing prey and drag it into the mouth - most fish will suck their prey into the mouth, but since moray eels live in small crevices in reefs, they don't have enough room for this, so they've evolved this instead.
Bad TFA. No photos. Not everyone have the time and bandwidth to watch the videos, you know.
Now go back to the church of global warming. We'll see who the ignoramous is in 10 years when man-made global warming is exposed for the hoax that it is.