Information on working terriers, dogs, natural history, hunting, and the environment, with occasional political commentary as I see fit. This web log is associated with the Terrierman.com web site.
Friday, January 11, 2019
Rodent Evolution Is Obvious
Guinea pig skull on top of capybara skull. A squirrel, a groundhog, and a beaver would fit between them without much morphological difference, other than size.
Water rodents, like beaver, have orange teeth due to increased iron in their enamel.
Looks like there are significant differences in bite, and I'd be willing to bet beavers have some beefed up teeth and jaws to support tree cutting habits. I'll grant, rodent differentiation is not like the difference between a finch and a pelican. But I'd guess that it would be as great as the differences between carnivores at least if you exclude deliberately bred exaggeration in domestic dogs and cats.
1 comment:
Looks like there are significant differences in bite, and I'd be willing to bet beavers have some beefed up teeth and jaws to support tree cutting habits. I'll grant, rodent differentiation is not like the difference between a finch and a pelican. But I'd guess that it would be as great as the differences between carnivores at least if you exclude deliberately bred exaggeration in domestic dogs and cats.
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