Page 53 - Mammal (DK Eyewitness)

CARNASSIAL POWER Fringed Dolphin Lower jaw is
Jackals are often considered scavengers, cleaning up plate of lower jaw long and
the leftovers at a lion’s kill. But they hunt too. The baleen delicate
ridged carnassial teeth near the jaw joint can shear
skin, gristle, and bone.
SLIPPERY CATCH
The dolphin is a
Canine tooth Carnassial tooth to cut meat piscivore (fish Teeth are
to grip prey eater). Its beak- all the
like mouth bears same
teeth that are
small, sharp, and
Golden all the same - an
jackal excellent design for
skull holding slippery
fish or squid.

Baleen is made
of fibers

KRILL COMB
Meat Baby baleen whales growing in the
womb have tiny teeth for a while.
NO TEETH But the plates of baleen, or
The long-beaked echidna eats small worms and insects. It has no whalebone, take over, developing
teeth - the prey is taken in by a sticky, spiny tongue and mashed from the roof of the mouth. The
between the rough back of the tongue and whale gulps seawater into its mouth,
the roof of the mouth. forces it out through the baleen
sieve, and then “licks off” the krill
Tongue housed in long tube (see below) and other small creatures
and swallows them.
Long-beaked
echidna skull

THE UNUSUAL AARDVARK
Africa’s aardvark is unusual in many ways. It only has back teeth, and
these have no enamel. They do little chewing, since ants and termites
collected by the sticky
tongue are crushed in Diagram to show rows of
the specialized baleen in whale’s mouth
stomach.
Dolphin’s dinner -
squid and fish

A tamandua
(collared anteater)
forages for ants and
termites with its
long, sticky tongue;
it has no teeth (left)

Crab-eating seal skull
Notched teeth for
RAZOR SHARP sieving krill
The hedgehog has small,
sharp teeth to chew up
its diet of caterpillars,
grubs, and beetles.
Hedgehog skull

Peglike
teeth

Teeth are
very sharp THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE CRAB EATER
The crab-eating seal of the Antarctic
does not actually eat crabs, it eats krill.
Aardvark skull Look closely at the intricate teeth of this seal
from below and you will see how it can sieve tiny shrimplike
krill from the seawater under the pack ice. Krill

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