I couldn't tell you exactly what the anatomical difference is between indigos and most other snakes, but the whole premise of the question is based on a common misunderstanding.



Snakes jaws are not "hinged" the way a human's (and other mammals I'm familiar with) are. The lower jaw consists of several pieces connected by stretchy ligaments. My guess would be that indigos just have shorter ligaments, but I don't know that for sure.



However, I can say that like indigos. king/milk snakes don't seem to be able to expand their mouths as far as other snakes. Probably a common trait among snake eaters...
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

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• snake species that can't unhinge their - poison1981, Sun Nov 8 13:50:43 2009
• RE: snake species that can't unhinge their - LarryF, Sun Nov 8 23:33:08 2009
• tossing smooth greens into the mix - anuraanman, Mon Nov 9 11:23:59 2009
• RE: tossing smooth greens into the mix - DMong, Mon Nov 9 13:26:22 2009
• RE: tossing smooth greens into the mix - anuraanman, Mon Nov 9 13:30:16 2009
• RE: tossing smooth greens into the mix - DMong, Mon Nov 9 15:44:25 2009
• oh! - DMong, Mon Nov 9 15:54:45 2009
• RE: oh! - poison1981, Tue Nov 10 03:12:40 2009
• RE: oh! - DMong, Tue Nov 10 11:43:44 2009
• RE: oh! - mfoux, Tue Nov 10 13:58:45 2009
• RE: oh! - DMong, Tue Nov 10 16:30:43 2009
• RE: oh! - mfoux, Wed Nov 11 08:38:58 2009
• Cool! - DMong, Wed Nov 11 10:33:51 2009
• RE: Cool! - mfoux, Thu Nov 12 14:27:49 2009
• RE: oh! - poison1981, Tue Nov 10 23:34:41 2009
• family vs genus - anuraanman, Wed Nov 11 13:02:32 2009
• Erycines... - chrish, Tue Nov 10 23:44:08 2009
• RE: Erycines... - althea, Thu Nov 12 23:24:48 2009