Amazon mata mata

Matamata With a flat, triangular head, a snorkel of a snout and a fringe of knobbly skin, the matamata hardly looks like a turtle at all. The snorkel lets it breathe at the surface without showing its body, so it can lie still on the bottom of slow-moving South American waters. The real surprise is the mouth. When a fish drifts close, the matamata opens its wide jaws so fast that the rush of water sucks the prey straight in, and it swallows the fish whole. Its jaws are too weak to seize or chew prey, and with suction doing the work, they never need to.