This work examined three different phenotypes of the yellow‐eel stage of the European eel Anguilla anguilla , broad‐heads, narrow‐heads and eels with an intermediate head shape. The aim was to see whether broad‐headed A. anguilla , which generally consume harder, larger prey, such as crustaceans and fish, exerted greater bite force than the narrow‐headed variant, which mainly consume soft, small prey such as chironomid larvae....