tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684843.post7102376001818997842..comments2024-03-26T22:16:26.572-04:00Comments on Terrierman's Daily Dose: Bite Club: Comparative Bite Force in Big MammalsPBurnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05781540805883519064noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684843.post-84408040963818036032008-07-30T08:53:00.000-04:002008-07-30T08:53:00.000-04:00What may be going on with regards the difference b...What may be going on with regards the difference between cats, dogs and marsupials is that the cats have the most specialised dental structures and need least force to achieve a kill (especially seen in the sabre-tooths), whereas the marsupials have much less well evolved teeth and also smaller brains so are biased towards force as opposed to finesse.<BR/><BR/>It would be interesting to model the bite forces of a few theropod dinosaurs on that scale as well, since they tended to plot right on the reptile brain-to-body size graph (i.e. really, really stupid compared to mammals) and had relatively undifferentiated teeth. Most theropods also had kinetic skulls, whereby flexible sutures in the skull and jaws could flex to avoid shock-loading the jawbones too much, which increases the total bite strength of the animal; reptiles also regrow teeth continuously so overstressing and breaking teeth is nowhere near the big deal that it would be to a mammal.<BR/><BR/>I strongly suspect that the smaller brained the animal is relative to body mass, the more it will be biased towards brute force and high bite strength as a killing method.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com