How do they accomplish this? Let’s compare the massive serpent to ourselves
Unlike most carnivores (including humans) which can bite off chunks of flesh and chew their prey, anacondas (like all snakes) lack limbs or cutting teeth, and thus must swallow their food whole, leaving absolutely no trace of the quarry.
How do they accomplish this? Let’s compare the massive serpent to ourselves.
A normal human being, when opening his or her mouth, has but one articulation via the lower jaw or mandible.
On the other hand, the anaconda has two articulations that render its jaws so extraordinarily flexible. This fact permits the mandible to descend and the upper jaw to rise simultaneously, hence allowing the snake to open wide its mouth to over 160 degrees! In heavy contrast with humans who can only open their mouths to 40 degrees.
It doesn’t stop there: the snake’s right and left lower jaws are separated down the joint, and the same thing is said for the right and left upper jaws.
Separated necessarily means independent – consequently, the anaconda unhinges its mobile jaws, uses them alternately while swallowing an enormous prey (whether deer, capybara, wild boar, anything…).
And walks its head around and over the victim, always starting with the head and ending with the legs, all while employing more than 100 backward-facing teeth. Razor-sharp teeth!
In the process, the reptile’s lower jaws force the food to advance down its throat. Then, its abdominal muscles guide the food straight into its stomach.
The stomach swells as the food passes by. The reason for this is that anacondas, like all snakes, lack the sternum or breastbone, a bone to which our spine’s ribs are welded. On the contrary, the snake’s ribs leave its spine without joining themselves – as a result, they diverge to let the food come by.
