TEETH WEEK!
We’ve done feet week and now we’re doing teeth week! We’ll be covering carnivore teeth, herbivore teeth, omnivore teeth and animals that have no teeth at all!
First up today we’re sharing some fun facts about carnivore teeth! Carnivore teeth are built for eating meat. They have large canine teeth for ripping and crabbing prey. Some carnivore teeth are specialized to enable their prey with venom.
One of the first animals people think of when they think of carnivores is cats- big and small! This lion is showing off her large canines that are made for eating prey- zebras, gazelles and such.
Shark teeth are serrated on the sides. It’s like having a mouth full of steak knives! These teeth are perfect eating machines!
The basking shark and whale shark are unlike all other sharks. These sharks filter plankton from the ocean.
Spiders are carnivores. Their teeth inject venom in their prey. Some snakes also have this capability.
Narwhals are one species of toothed whales. They have one unusual tooth adaptation. The males have a specialized large tooth that grows outside of their mouth. Scientists are not sure what this tooth is for yet.
Leopard seals are aggressive carnivores who live in Antarctica. Their cone shaped chompers are made for grabbing fish and penguins.
Frogs have small cone shaped teeth in their top jaw. These “teeth” are not true teeth and are not used to grab prey or chew it. Frogs usually swallow their prey whole. They use those “teeth” to keep a hold of prey before they swallow it.
One big group of carnivores are raptors! These birds use their specialized beaks to tear prey apart, like the fish that a bald eagle would eat. Those beaks contain no teeth!
Owls are also raptors. They use their beaks to grab rodents. They have no teeth to chew, so prey is swallowed whole.
Elephants & Horses love to share!
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