Meeting Abstract

P1.108  Thursday, Jan. 3  Morphological characteristics of juvenile bite performance: the effect of tooth sharpness BINDER, W.J.; Loyola Marymount University wbinder@lmu.edu

A comparative analysis of several species of carnivores was undertaken in order to explore morphological determinants of relative bite strength in juveniles when compared with adults, and ascertain if and how they differed among groups of carnivores. These measures included a relative measure of bite strength using a lever-arm model of the jaw, measurements of tooth tip and whole tooth sharpness, and comparative cusp counts. Using the lever-arm model of bite force, it was found that adults consistently had a greater mechanical advantage of the jaw musculature than juveniles. At the same time, juveniles had sharper teeth (using either measurement), and deciduous teeth were also shown to have more cusp points than permanent teeth. This demonstrates that while adults may have greater bite strength through traditional measures of muscle size and jaw mechanics, juveniles may have increased bite performance through increased penetrability of their sharper cusps and greater numbers of tooth cusps which increase this effect. Some interesting phylogenetic trends among families of carnivores were also demonstrated when comparing adult and juvenile tooth sharpness, as well.