Yawning Siren Intermedia

[Tarabull]

I thought I would share a few pictures caught before, during, and after my boy was yawning. His mouth can get quite wide. Sorry they are not oriented right. I tried rotating the pictures every way, and they still turned out this direction.

In the pictures with his mouth open you can see a black ring in his mouth. Is this a feature that helps hold on to food? I know it isn't teeth.

 

[ellenc]

Great photos. Sirens have strange teeth on the roof of the mouth, but I think the black structure you see is the part of the horny beak at the front of the mandible. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/the-biology-of-sirens/

 

[supergrappler]

AWWWWW.... so darn cute!