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."

Comments

movie rights

[psbrogna]

Anybody else feeling like there's a certain Sci-Fi channel mediocre miniseries in our near future?

That's what she said

[192939495969798999]

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.

Hmm

[BlowHole666]

By dropping the lower jaw and creating a flow of water into their mouths, they draw in the prey. Hmm wonder if my wife is an Eel?

Interesting, but front-page worthy?

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

The second set of jaws is quite interesting. One of the claims of the Creationists (yeah, it predates ID movement and it has been debunked so thoroughly even IDers don't mention it anymore) is the difference in articulation of the jaw between reptiles and mammals. The way the Creationists said it, the jaw first has to be disarticulated from the joint and then re-articulated around a different bone end and during the interim the animal would not be able to eat. So such an evolution is impossible.

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.

Re:Ob. Ned Flanders quote

[marcello_dl]

Still mad at me for the way I designed your little wee-wee, are you?

Re:uh oh.

[UncleTogie]

Something to think about the next time your swimming naked in a lake or stream........It's not the 1st set of jaws that will get you.... it's the 2nd set....... The scary part? There might be people out there that'd appeal to...

Thank you.

[TechnicolourSquirrel]

Thank you, kdawson. That WILL be all. ......FILE STATUS: CLOSED.

Japanese fishermen may already be on to this...

[TheHornedOne]

I wonder what these guys think of this discovery..

Re:As Dean Martin used to say...

[MarsDefenseMinister]

Having sex with a fish is gross.
Having sex with an eel is a moray.