Editing Quadrate bone (section)

== Function in reptiles ==
[[File:Python Daudin, 1803.jpg|left|thumb|275x275px|An exploded python skull with disarticulated upper and lower jaws. The quadrate bone (c) is particularly elongated in snakes, to facilitate [[cranial kinesis]]. Courtesy of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Division of Vertebrate Zoology, Yale University.]]In certain extinct reptiles, the variation and stability of the morphology of the quadrate bone has helped paleontologists in the species-level taxonomy and identification of mosasaur squamates <ref>DeBraga, M. and Carroll, R.L., 1993. The origin of mosasaurs as a model of macroevolutionary patterns and processes. In Evolutionary biology (pp. 245-322). Springer US.</ref> and [[Spinosauridae|spinosaurine]] dinosaurs.<ref>Hendrickx, C., Mateus O., & Buffetaut E. (2016).  Morphofunctional Analysis of the Quadrate of Spinosauridae (Dinosauria: Theropoda) and the Presence of Spinosaurus and a Second Spinosaurine Taxon in the Cenomanian of North Africa.. PLoS ONE. 11, e0144695., 01, Number 1: Public Library of Science</ref>

In some lizards and dinosaurs, the quadrate is articulated at both ends and movable.{{Citation needed|date=April 2020}} In snakes, the quadrate bone has become elongated and very mobile, and contributes greatly to their ability to swallow very large prey items.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Lee|first1=Michael S. Y.|last2=Bell|first2=Gorden L.|last3=Caldwell|first3=Michael W.|date=August 1999|title=The origin of snake feeding|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/23236|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=400|issue=6745|pages=655–659|doi=10.1038/23236|bibcode=1999Natur.400..655L |s2cid=4425886 |issn=1476-4687|url-access=subscription}}</ref>