A comment in a thread below remided me of something I've been meaning to ask.

For a very long time it was accepted that snakes "unhinge" their jaws to swallow large prey. At some point in the last 10 years (maybe earlier) the conventional wisdom has changed to "they don't unhinge them, they are just connected by stretchy cartilage".

I've dissected a few snakes and can verify that the lower jaw is connected by cartilage (and another bone who's name I don't recall) to the skull.

But I've seen quite a few snakes (corn snakes jump to mind) that often have their lower jaw noticably out of place after swallowing a large meal and SEEM to go around forcefully pushing their lower jaw against things until it is back in place.

Does anyone happen to know exactly what IS going on there?
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

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