Have All the Good Ideas Already Been Taken?

It's hard to out gross actual biology.

Absurd Creature of the Week: This Eel Fires Extra AlienJaws Out of Its Throat

Now watch carefully as the second set of jaws comes out of the throat to grab the block of bait.

In Alien, which I saw when I was a kid but was too scared to keep my eyes open enough to really watch, people are on a spaceship, then there’s a guy who has, like, tummy problems or something, and finally the big alien enjoys a nice spacewalk. Also, I remember that the alien had a mouth that came out of its regular mouth, and whenever I saw it I had a panic attack.

But I’m older and more sensible now and happy to report that I’m over my fear of jaws that come out of jaws. I know because I can watch the incredible GIF above without suffering a conniption fit. That’s a moray eel, and that white bit you see emerging from its throat? It’s a second set of jaws that fire forward and pull prey down its gullet, just like in Alien … or so people who have seen the whole movie tell me.

 Pretty strange, huh?

Oddly, these jaws are present in all bony fishes, said Rita Mehta, a biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “The vast majority of fishes out there,” she said, “they’re not chewing their food with their oral jaws, and so the evolution of the pharyngeal jaws actually enables them to masticate their food.”

I was in grad school when Alien came out, and I recall Ted and I going to the movie because Georgia was too chicken.  Despite Sigourney Weaver as the star, we couldn't convince her it was a chick flick...

Back to the jaws.  Did H.R. Giger, the artist who designed the "Alien" know about these pharyngeal teeth, or did he reinvent one of natures hidden mysteries? Oddly, no:

(The man who created the Alien queen, by the way, was unfamiliar with the moray. He just set out to create something sufficiently “frightening and horrible,” to which the eels reply, “Uh, rude.”)

Some of the classic kill scenes from the "Aliens" movies, many showing the jaws at work:



And bonus Sigourney Weaver below the fold:

Wombat-socho has the the long awaited, post tax day, triple stuffed  edition of "Rule 5 Sunday: Ricochet" up at The Other McCain.