Carnassial
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Carnassials are large teeth found in many carnivorous mammals, used for shearing flesh and bone in a scissor- or shear-like way. In the Carnivora, the carnassials are the modified last upper premolar and the first molar, but in the prehistoric creodonts, the carnassials were further back in the jaw–first upper and second lower or second upper and third lower molars. These teeth are also referred to as sectorial teeth.[1]
Wear and cracking of the carnassial teeth in a wild carnivore (e.g. wolves, lions) may result in the death of the individual due to starvation.
[edit] References
- ^ Henry Fairfield Osborn (1907). Evolution of mammalian molar teeth. Macmillan. http://books.google.com/books?id=_0eVtpUqWswC&pg=PA11. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
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