Mandibular sawing in a snail-eating snake.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Kojima Y
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7391773 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Mandibular sawing in a snail-eating snake.
Kojima Yosuke Y Fukuyama Ibuki I Kurita Takaki T Hossman Mohamad Yazid Bin MYB Nishikawa Kanto K
Scientific reports 20200729 1
The jaws of vertebrates display a striking diversity in form and function, but they typically open and close like a trapdoor rather than sliding like a saw. Here, we report unique feeding behaviour in the blunt-headed snail-eating snake, Aplopeltura boa (family Pareidae), where the snake cuts off and circumvents the indigestible part (the operculum) of its prey in the mouth using long sliding excursions of one side of the mandible, while the upper jaws and the mandible on the other side maintain ...[more]
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