Alien-like Eels Use a Deadly Second Jaw to Catch Their Prey

by apple_lipsis | September 15, 2007 at 07:41 pm

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Researchers in California have discovered that Moray Eels have a unique way of capturing their prey and its sparking comparisons to Ridley Scott's Alien. Dr Mehta first decided to investigate when she noticed that unlike other fish, morays don't use suction to catch their prey. That's because, morays have an additional inner jaw called pharyngeal jaws. Most other fish also have pharyngeal jaws but what's unusual about the morays is that their second jaws are much longer and can shoot out of their throat to grab and pull their prey in. Dr. Mehta used a high speed video camera to capture the pharyngeal jaws in action:

The movies showed that when morays lunge for prey, they first grab it with the teeth on their front jaws. The pharyngeal jaws then shoot forward out of the eel’s throat, into the mouth, and snap down on the prey.

The eel can then open its front jaws, releasing the prey, while the pharyngeal jaws move back down into the throat, dragging the food with them.

“It seems that almost everyone we showed the movie to said ‘My God, it’s like ‘Alien,’ ” Dr. Wainwright said. “It really does have this monster-from-outer-space feel to it.”

Dr. Mehta and Dr. Wainwright published their results in the current issue of Nature.