| Nope. further down than that- The area you are looking at is typical of opportunistic omnivorous scavenger feeders. The floor of the mouth rises and falls for breathing ( forcing water over the gills for oxygen extraction) and for sucking in food to be delivered to the gill area ( on the lower pharyngeal bone) where there is a grinding stone ( appropriately called a 'carp stone' ) and then mashed by 3 rows/sets of molar like teeth. The 'bump' you are seeing is a pharyngeal pad ( some say similar to a tongue?) that contains muscle, connective tissue and on top-taste buds. This arrangement makes great sense for a carp, a fish that must take bites of the ‘mud’ and plants and then separate out the food from the ‘not food’. This is called winnowing. AFTER the mud is mostly spit out, the food must then be masticated. All pellets are chewed by the way- this not only makes the pieces smaller but also opens ‘new surface’ for predigestion and digestion. I say this because dishonest food manufactures , in an effort to save money and production costs, once floated a tale that small pellets are more easily digested- poppy-cock.
Some shed teeth- |