Mondo Knows Facts
A snake swallows by walking its jaws
The two halves of the lower jaw move independently to draw prey inward Ligaments let the jaw halves spread apart, and alternating grips ratchet the meal down the throat. Snakes do not dislocate their jaws; the joint is simply looser. Flexible skin between the jaw bones allows the stretch. It sits in Mondo's animals collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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A koala joey eats its mother's droppingsA special soft stool called pap moves gut microbes into the young gutPythons swallow prey whole by flexing independent jaw bonesFlexible quadrate bones and elastic ligaments let python jaws stretch wide.The reticulated python is the longest snake in the worldThe longest measured specimens exceed six metresInsects breathe through holes in their sidesAir enters spiracles and travels through tubes called tracheaeKoala fingerprints are nearly identical to human fingerprintsEven under electron microscopes, koala print loops are hard to distinguish.Sea urchins scrape rocks using a five-toothed jaw mechanismAristotle lantern apparatus features five self-sharpening teeth.
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Tags: snakes, feeding, anatomy
A snake swallows by walking its jaws: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- The two halves of the lower jaw move independently to draw prey inward. The figure is taken from Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a animals fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Animals shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.