Even most herbivorous species have larger brains relative to their body weights than the terrestrial dogbeasts, and carnivorous sorts are smarter still - able to utilize coordinated efforts to get their food.Īll wheeljaws are social to some degree. This is because cirguadonts are social animals which descend from a more advanced group of the tribbethere clade. When it comes to larger prey animals, however, dogbeasts are much less successful. To bring down animals as large as itself or more so requires a different hunting technique.Īs far as hunting small animals, meat-eating cirguadonts and dogbeasts are similarly efficient predators with equally competitive hunting techniques. On occasion, however, they will also hunt much larger prey animals, equal to or surpassing themselves in weight. Though most predatory wheeljaws feed mainly on small animals, they are still omnivorous and also readily consume fruit, nuts, and small quantities of vegetation. The lips prevent food from being lost out the side of the mouth, but as these predator species require wider gape than earlier grazers the lips have become highly elastic. Once disabled through one of these means or another, it is further dismembered in a few rapid shearing bites which are each further broken up by the grinding motion in the back of the jaws. The anatomy of their mouths really only allows a single shearing bite, and so prey is usually bitten on the back so that the spinal cord is severed - small animals, however, may be cut literally in half, and a misplaced killing bite can cleanly take off a limb. Instead of fleeing from other predators now, however, they use these adaptations to run down smaller molodonts. Their proportions are still mostly in line with early herbivore cirguagodonts and they are gracile, with long limbs suited to endurance running. Predator wheeljaws now feed predominately on animals, competing with spearrunners as well as their distant tribbethere relatives the dogbeasts among Serina's major land predators. When the jaw opens again, the meat is pulled forward and sliced a second time until it is in pieces small enough to easily swallow. As the tooth slides back and the lower jaw closes, the tips of the teeth close in a scissoring motion which cuts another piece of flesh and slices it as the tooth slides back. As the jaw opens, the mobile upper tooth slides forward and up, causing the wider cusped hind portion to slide between the cusps of the lower jaw. The front of both teeth have changed little and still project from the lips as a shearing beak.Ībove: a cutaway showing the form and motion of a predator wheeljaw's teeth during the actions of biting and chewing. A flat groove has developed in the middle of the lower tooth with rows of cusps on either side, while the tooth in the upper jaw has narrowed across its entire length in comparison to the very wedge-shaped one of other wheeljaws, so that as it slides back and forth within this groove it contacts with these cusps along its edges, where additional cutting blades have formed. They include a reduction of toes from seven to five, a simplified stomach, eyes set more forward on the face, clawed digits on the forearms instead of blunt hooves, a wider gape, and some further specialization to the teeth - namely, the development of cusps in the rear of the teeth which shear together in a slicing motion, rather than the blunt grinders of their ancestors. The main differences between herbivore wheeljaws and their carnivorous relatives, then, have been small. Like most herbivores, the stomachs of circuagodonts have few difficulties digesting animal protein adapted to gain nutrition from coarse plant food, breaking down meat was comparably very simple. Above: a typical predatory-type circuagaodont.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |