What you can do with an extra jaw - Darien Satterfield

Discover the adaptation of the pharyngeal jaw, a secondary set of jaws that allow fish to capture and eat their prey at the same time.

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After stalking a cuttlefish, a moray eel finally pounces. As the eel snags the mollusk in its teeth, its prey struggles to escape. But before it can wiggle away, a second set of teeth lunge from the eel’s throat. This adaptation is called a pharyngeal jaw, and is one of the most common adaptations under the sea. Darien Satterfield shares how this incredible skeletal mechanism works.

Lesson by Darien Satterfield, directed by Zack Williams.

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Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Samuel Doerle, David Rosario, Siamak H, Manav parmar, David Lucsanyi, Anthony Kudolo, Ryohky Araya, Mayank Kaul, Eduardo Briceño, Christophe Dessalles, Heather Slater, Yuh Saito, Fabian Amels, Sandra Tersluisen, Zhexi Shan, Bárbara Nazaré, Andrea Feliz, Victor E Karhel, Sydney Evans, Latora Slydell, Noel Situ, emily lam, Sid, Kent Logan, Alexandra Panzer, Jay M, Constantino Victor Delgado, Andrea Galvagni, Andrew Tweddle, Laurel-Ann Rice, Fernando A. Endo, Courtney Marcott, Anna-Alicia Brooks, Mustafa, Helen Lee, pam morgan, sarim haq, Juan Pablo Rodriguez Morales, ANNE FINE, Gerardo Castro, Siddharth Toshniwal, Justice Boehmer, Michel-Ange Hortegat, Enes Kirimi, Amaury BISIAUX BISIAUX, Aravind C V, ND, Samyogita Hardikar, Vanessa Graulich and Vandana Gunwani.

[kurushi]

Nature was like "oh, we forgot to give you limbs, here, have some more teeth".

[mitwhitgaming]

"When the jaws open wide, and there's more jaws inside, _that's a moray_ ."

[Jobe-]

The music and animation are making me really nostalgic of elementary school field trips to the aquarium. Why are you doing this to me Ted-Ed it hurts.

[amogh]

Well, now we know where Pennywise got his teeth.

[abhishekpattanayak]

Mantaray: "O.K. Cichlid class time for school trip!"
"File yourselves according to appetite of your pharyngeal jaws."

[SpinR]

"more fitting for an alien parasite"

That's basically what fish are at this point

[reubencaldwell]

Apparently, Moray eels like to team up with groupers in a "you go high, I go low" hunting strategy.

[shakuntalapatra]

See people, the ocean has alien jaws as well. Just another reason to fear the bloody place.

[sophieg]

As a motion graphics student, the amount of detail and planning for the animation is amazing

[TheManCalledDrHorse]

I love the animation. Has that bad-trip vibe like a Residents video.

[InfansDeAter]

I very much appreciate the Spongebob Squarepants-esque music that went with this video!

[TheMcChickenMaster]

This is easily the craziest video I’ve ever watched. The animation and music are sending me to the stratosphere, holy moly

[whenitsraining]

I love these biology videos! It's been forever since I picked a book or went through a video about the diversity of features of animals. Next time, wouldn't it be great to have one about birds, for instance? I loved this video.

[datcatcatcat]

"California sheepheads"
Me mishearing: Not a very nice name for a fish...

[medardbitangimana]

This video's visual esthetic and sound design should be talked about. The lesson is very informative as always

[ambiguousgesture]

I thought moray’s were the only creatures with an extra set of jaws. Turns out, lots of different fish have them. Didn’t know that! You learn something new every day!

[akulkotryna]

I think it's very cool how TED-Ed gets so creative, as I have never seen 2 videos with the same art style.

[LetsGoGetThem]

I am reminded of that SCP of that massive Moray eel. A massive moray eel would be so scary.

[rajeevsrivastava]

*Fish stuck too the predator's mouth :*
Haha you can't capture and eat at the same time, i will soon escape
*Pharyngeal jaws :*
I am about to end this fish's while career

[ayrusification]

Somehow, the human face at the end was more scarier.