Hippos are terrible at chewing, and their large tusks and front teeth are to blame.
Plant-eating mammals usually use the wide teeth on the sides of their mouths to grind and tear fibrous plants before swallowing them. The size of their feces can indicate their chewing efficiency, as their digestion process doesn’t hippos-ferocious-nature-contrasts-with-their-inefficient-chewing-abilities-due-to-enormous-teeth.html” title=”Hippos' Ferocious Nature Contrasts with Their Inefficient Chewing Abilities Due to Enormous Teeth”>significantly reduce food particle size.
In 2009, veterinarian Marcus Clauss and his colleagues from the University of Zurich compared the sizes of fecal particles in nearly 200 mammal species. They discovered that hippos were the least efficient chewers among herbivores. Years later, Clauss and his colleague Annika Avedik wondered if the hippos’ enormous front teeth were the reason for their poor chewing ability.
Some herbivores, like deer and cattle, have lost some of their front incisors during evolution, possibly because they hindered chewing. African rhinos have completely lost theirs. “Hippos are an example of a group that didn’t lose them,” says Clauss.
2023-10-04 13:00:00
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