Mediterranean moray

Photo: frahome · CC BY-NC

Large morays use the lava tube ceiling crevices as daytime shelter, emerging to hunt along the cave floor at night. Their muscular second set of jaws — the pharyngeal jaws — pulls prey backward into the throat without the moray needing to move its head, an adaptation that allows feeding within the confined geometry of tube walls where water resistance prevents the head-shaking swallowing technique used by most fish.