Fish have had telescoping jaws for 100 million years
A Maori wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus) protrudes its jaws forward to help the fish catch a meal. This jaw-stretching strategy has become more dramatic and widespread over the last 100 million years.
© João Paulo Krajewski
For the last 100 million years, fish have steadily refined the art of tossing their own jaws forward.
This hunting trick, known as jaw protrusion, helps bony teleost fish — the most abundant group of fish worldwide — snag their prey. When fish first tried the trick in the Late Cretaceous, they could stretch their jaws up to 8.16 percent of their own body length. Today, fish can extend their jaws to over 20 percent of their body length, scientists report in the Oct. 19 Current Biology.
Telescoping fish jaws probably played an important role in changing marine food webs, the researchers say. Crabs and other prey animals might have even evolved to be smaller and nocturnal to avoid getting snatched up.
