Fish feed by using water. When a fish notices something appetizing, it captures it with its jaws and sucks it into its throat. Otherwise, it wouldn't work: the tongue of most fish lacks musculature, and without a muscular tongue, swallowing food is difficult, almost impossible.
However, some fish, such as moray eels, have pharyngeal jaws — a kind of replacement for a tongue. These are true jaws located deep in the throat that can extend forward. Moray eels capture prey using both their regular jaws and their pharyngeal jaws, with the pharyngeal jaws helping to pull food into the throat.
Researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz, report in the Journal of Experimental Biology that thanks to their pharyngeal jaws, the moray eel, known as the starry moray, can even feed on land. When it extends onto the shore, the starry moray captures food — and if it were a regular fish, it would have to return to the water to suck the food into its throat. But with its extendable jaws, the moray can eat a piece right on the ground.
Interestingly, there are other fish that can feed on land — the mudskippers. However, they do not have extendable jaws, and to swallow food, they splash it with water and then suck the water along with the food into their mouths.
