American woman with “biggest yawns” breaks record for largest mouth gape

Ever since she was a little kid, Marie Pearl Zellmer Robinson (USA) knew she had a big yawn.

When she’d open her jaws, there was always this sizable gap between her top and bottom rows of teeth, exposing her tongue. As one of seven children, she remembers messing around with her siblings, safely sticking oranges and even lightbulbs in and out of her mouth for their entertainment.

“I’ve always kind of known I had a big mouth,” she told the Ketchikan Daily News, in Ketchikan, Alaska. “I talk a lot, and apparently I do have a physically big mouth, but we never really did anything about it. It was always just kind of a joke that I could fit two, you know, three and a half Jenga blocks in my mouth, type of concept, when you’re kids.”

But now, she’s finally getting some recognition for her fantastic face, after local dentists examined her mouth and submitted evidence that Marie has the largest mouth gape (female) – a fun and long-awaited accomplishment for the lifelong Guinness World Records fan.

Marie said that back in 2013, she was devastated to miss out on joining the 1,976 people who showed up at her local bypass to compete for the world’s largest Wellington boot race, because she was scheduled to work and couldn’t claim the record title.

So when she later saw a video online of the previous male and female record holders for the largest mouth gape, she was thrilled when she found out her mouth was larger – and she could finally get her chance to be in the record books.

“I’m like, ‘Oh, there’s a girl [record] too?’” she said. “And I just watched the videos a few times. I’m like, ‘Huh, that’s funny. I could fit that kind of stuff in my mouth too! Hey, I wonder if I can beat her!'”

“So I grabbed myself a ruler and I measured,” she continued. “I’m like, ‘wait a second, I can totally beat her!’ Not just by a little bit either – hers was reported at around two and a half inches. It was like, ‘Dude, I can beat her by almost half an inch.'”

Marie’s pair of metal non-digital medical calipers was recording an average of 7.23 to 7.33 cm, while the jaws of previous record holder Samantha Ramsdell (USA) were smaller, at 6.52 cm.

So the next time she went to the dentist, she told him about her aspirations, and asked him to take down some official evidence.

And upon review, Marie’s mouth was an amazing 7.59 cm (2.98 in)!

She attributes the measurements to the size of her mandible, saying that her jaw bone is positioned back near her ear canal, providing her with a wider range of movement.

“So when I’ve dropped my lower jaw, it’s not hitting the tendons and muscles that a lot of people have,” she said. “So I can open it wider than most people, just because of my jaw positioning.”

She also remarked that the calipers used during the measurement did not force her mouth open – that’s just the natural size of her jaw! 

Marie has never had braces, or any kind of dental work done that would impact the shape of her mouth.

“I have had one tooth pulled, but nothing that affects my bite in any way, shape, or form,” she said.

And although Marie is proud of her record, she doesn’t go around showing just everyone.

“When I do, it kind of creeps people out,” she said. “That’s a creepy jaw!”

But still, she’s glad to now be able to share her accomplishment with everyone else in her community that has a record.

“Now I get to join the rest of them and have a Guinness World Records title with a lot of other people in town,” she said.

Hey, better late than never… especially when the record requires yawning, and not running!