Moray eels are toothy, creepy

photo credit: Rita Mehta

Scientists at UC Davis confirmed this week that moray eels are scary as hell. The eel uses its jaws to grab prey, and then–get this–a second set of jaws flies out of its throat and yanks the food into its esophagus. The top photo shows the ‘pharyngeal jaws’ in their normal position, resting in the eel’s throat. The bottom photo shows how the jaws move forward to seize food. The whole alien process takes just fractions of a second.

Read the press release.