Transcript Diversity In Dentition

•A cow’s jaw muscles (Masseter, Pterygoid and Temporalis
muscles) assist it in chewing high-fibre plant material. Pterygoid
muscles help to open and close the cow’s mouth, and the
Masseter muscles help move the jaw from side to side. When a
cow chews the cud you can see this happening.
•The temporalis muscle, which is present in omnivores and
carnivores as well, is less developed, and as a result, the cow
cannot open it’s mouth wide enough to catch moving prey.
•Cows have 32 teeth they have 24 molars, 6 incisors and 2 canines
and instead of top front teeth, they have a dental pad. A dental
pad is soft cartilage used for chewing cud as well as helping a cow
chew it’s food. There is also a large gap between the incisors and
the this is called a diastema.
•The cows teeth are used to grind food to make it small enough to
be swallowed.
•Herbivorous animals have well-developed Pterygoid and
Masseter muscles. Pterygoid muscles help open and close the jaw
and move it from side to side. Masseter muscles work with the
Pterygoid muscles to close the jaw. They are also assist in side to
side and front to back chewing.
•Cows tongues are very long this helps clutch onto the grass, they
can only eat long grass as they can’t fully wrap their tongue
around short grass. After the cow gets the food into the mouth it
pinches it together using the incisors and the dental pad.
•The cow can take in a large amount of grass into the mouth
because of the size of the Diastema, it then brings the food into
the back of the mouth where it then can be chewed properly by
the molars, a cow has rough cheeks which helps keep the food
inside its mouth while being chewed.
•Dogs have 42 teeth ,4 canine teeth, 12 and 26 carnassials (molars
and premolars).
•The teeth of a dog are large and pointed, this helps the dog catch
and kill its prey. The long, sharp canine teeth enable the dog to
bite down and puncture flesh, while the row of other teeth keep a
steady hold of the prey.
•Carnivores teeth tear flesh straight from bone, a carnivorous
animal cannot chew, it just shears large lumps of meat from it’s
prey and swallows it whole.
•A dog’s jaw is relatively large compared to the size of it’s head.
This is because the temporalis muscle is the most well-developed
muscle. The Masseter and Pterygoid muscles are relatively
unimportant. If they were larger, the dog would have a smaller
mouth, and subsequently be unable to eat large portions of meat
as it does now.
•The Masseter and Pterygoid muscles assist in chewing. In dogs,
they are relatively undeveloped, which means a dog has restricted
jaw movements, but this doesn’t hinder the dog in any way, as it
simply eats it’s food whole.
•Dogs Pterygoid and Masseter muscles are smaller than they are
in herbivores and omnivores. The temporalis muscle is the most
well-developed muscle in the dog’s head, and this enables it to
bite down quickly onto it’s prey.
•We have 32 teeth in total by adulthood, 8 incisors, 4 flattened
canines, 12 molars and 8 premolars.
•Humans are omnivores because we are anatomically designed to
eat both meant and plants.
•Human teeth are similar to carnivores except the canine teeth
are small and act as incisors.
•The Human incisors are used for relatively soft materials. At the
back of the mouth, the molars grind and crush the already pulped
food. Omnivores and herbivores carefully and methodically chew
their food, because unlike carnivores, they cannot swallow food
whole.
•The facial muscles in humans used for chewing are the Masseter
muscle, the Pterygoid muscle, and the temporalis muscle.
Masseter and Pterygoid muscles allow the jaw to perform a wide
variety of movements, and the temporalis muscle allows the jaw
to be opened extremely wide.
•The Pterygoid and the Masseter muscles are well-developed in
humans, because we eat a wide variety of different foods, and we
therefore need to perform lots of different jaw movements.
•Because a human diet consists of less harsh plant food than most
herbivores we don’t have a dental pad.
•The temporalis muscle in humans is small and of minor
importance, because we don’t need to grasp hold of our prey with
our mouths.