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Snakes use highly kinetic joints to allow a huge gape; it is these highly kinetic joints that allow the wide gape and not the "unhinging" of joints, as many believe. Snakes engage in high amounts of cranial kinesis that help them perform important tasks such as eating.
Most fish species with pharyngeal teeth do not have extendable pharyngeal jaws. A particularly notable exception is the highly mobile pharyngeal jaw of the moray eels.These are possibly a response to their inability to swallow as other fishes do by creating a negative pressure in the mouth, perhaps induced by their restricted environmental niche (burrows) or in the air in the intertidal zone. [10]
The Anomalepididae are a family of nonvenomous snakes, native to Central and South America. They are similar to Typhlopidae, except that some species possess a single tooth in the lower jaw. Currently, four genera and 15 species are recognized. [2] Common names include primitive blind snake [2] and dawn blind snake.
The study involved scientists examining three snakes and finding that the species can have a maximum gape (or the width it can open its jaws) of 10.2 inches—a more significant number than the ...
Snakes have more flexible jaws, that is, instead of a juncture at the upper and lower jaw, the snake's jaws are connected by a bone hinge that is called the quadrate bone. Between the two halves of the lower jaw at the chin there is an elastic ligament that allows for a separation.
Relatively small snakes, leptotyphlopids rarely exceed 30 cm (12 in) in length; only Trilepida macrolepis and Leptotyphlops occidentalis grow larger. The cranium and upper jaws are immobile and no teeth are in the upper jaw. The lower jaw consists of a much elongated quadrate bone, a tiny compound bone, and a relatively larger dentary bone. [3]
See photos of the world's largest snake orgy. Once they slither from their dens and wiggle off the cold, they ravage each other -- a phenomenon experts refer to as a "mating ball."
This genus is taxonomically and phylogenetically challenging to classify, as these snakes possess several morphological traits that distinguish them from all other snake species; head scales with numerous sensory papillae, large prefrontal scales, and an upper jaw that has a spiny palatine process.