Thak you. That's great diagram. I was aware of all of those joints (other than bringing up the names, and the extra one in the egg-eaters), but looking at the photo that way helps.

I'm wondering if maybe one or both quadrates might end up rotated forwards sometimes and the skin and other tissues returning to position after stretching might prevent it from rotating back to where it belongs. Perhaps the snake is pushing to overcome the force of the other tissues squeezing in on that area (sort of like having a rubber band around the back of the jaw)...

One note though, I THINK you have the green joint A too far back...
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

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