Chapter 33, Problem 9STP

Summary Introduction

To analyze:

The dietary habit of animals by studying the shape and type of teeth.

Introduction:

The meat-eating animals are considered as carnivores that have tearing teeth and also the skull has the capability of biting in great force. In plant-eating animals or herbivores, the teeth and the skull is formed such that they are used to grind the vegetables or plants they eat. The animals that eat both plants and animals as their food are considered as omnivores. The teeth and the structure of the skull are formed so that is suitable for different food types.

Explanation of Solution

Carnivores being flesh eaters, have sharp long teeth that help them to tear, rip, or cut the flesh easily. They have few molar teeth in the back and sharp incisors in the front, but the most useful teeth they have are canine teeth. The herbivores consume plant materials because of which they have many pairs of molars that are used to grind leaves, twigs, and shoots. The omnivores eat both plants and the flesh of animals. They possess different types of teeth like incisors and canines to tear and grind the food. The picture given is of two different mammals; the first one is of beaver rodentia, they are herbivores and in the picture, we can observe that they have molars and incisors to grind the plant materials. The below picture is of carnivores that have sharp canines along with incisors in the front and molar teeth in the back, the sharp canine is useful to tear the flesh of the other animals.

Conclusion

Thus, it is concluded that the given picture shows herbivorous animals that eat plant materials and carnivores that eat animal flesh.