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The Newsletter of the Colorado Herpetological Society

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Natural History

Weird Jaws Let Tiny Snake Gulp Fast

This rather delicate predator turns out to have a unique jaw structure for high-speed gulping, thus minimizing time in a risky ant nest, say Nate J. Kley and Elizabeth L. Brainerd of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In the November 25 Nature, they describe videotaping the snakes in a Plexiglas feeding chamber. Most snakes eat big prey by stepping their upper jaw, one side at a time, over the victim, essentially walking dinner into their mouths. The process takes minutes to hours. Threadsnakes, however, depend on their toothy lower jaw, which is divided at the midline. The halves bend in, then out, "like a pair of swinging doors," as the researchers put it. The snakes can flip their jaws several times a second, pulling meals down the hatch in an eye blink. Kley notes admiringly, "They're able to pile away dozens of little ants in a minute."

And there is a neat picture of a tiny snake curled up on a dime, with plenty of room to spare!