The structure and function of carnivore, omnivore, herbivore teeth in digestion.

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Teeth differ according to the main diet eaten by the mammal. This is because the teeth are designed to be most efficient at breaking down different types of food. A herbivore, e.g. a horse, eats plant-based material which needs to be first of all cut from the plant, e.g. grass. The herbivore incisors are able to do this because they are sharp. The plant material then needs to be ground down into small pieces to release as much of the nutrients as possible. The molar teeth are flat with an increased surface area and ridges across the surface, which increase their ability to grind the plant material. On the other hand, carnivores, e.g. a cat, eat mainly meat (or other animals). In order to do this, the carnivore usually needs to catch and hold on to the food (prey) first, before it can kill and eat it. In order to do this, carnivores usually have sharp teeth towards the front or sides of the mouth that can grasp and hold onto moving prey. These teeth are the incisors and the canines. The incisors are sharp and the canines are sharp and pointed as well, which is useful for both holding on to and cutting flesh. Some carnivores, e.g. dogs, also have carnassial teeth, which are modified molars, which are adapted to allow for the shearing (rather than tearing) of flesh to permit the more efficient consumption of meat (swallows meat quickly). Omnivores eat both plants and animals (meat). In order to do this, they have a combination of both sets of teeth from herbivores and carnivores. They have sharp incisors at the front to cut plant-based food and hold and cut flesh. The molar teeth are flat with an increased surface area and ridges across the surface, which increase their ability to grind the plant material. As these mammals consume both plants and animal products, they need to utilise sharp canine for holding and cutting flesh as well as molars to grinding plant material. All animals have teeth that are adapted to eating certain types of food. For example, herbivores such as the rabbit, eat plant material like cellulose, have wide, flat molars for grinding tough celluloses, and small or non-existent canine teeth because they are not needed. The flat molars allow the tough cellulose plant material to be broken down through a grinding action. This helps with the difficult digestion of cellulose. (Herbivore incisors are sharp for tearing plants, but they may not be present on both the upper and lower jaw.) Many herbivores, such as rabbits have jaws that are capable of moving sideways which allows for increased grinding motion. On the other hand, carnivores eat meat, have very defined canine teeth for tearing at meat and piecing and holding and killing their prey and sharp molars and carnassial teeth ( see above) which slice up the meat into bits to be swallowed. So the teeth play a major role in the physical digestion of the food consumed as part of each mammal’s diet. Their shape, structure, number and position vary, depending on what the mammal’s diet predominantly consists of. Herbivores have reduced canines and incisors, however they have much larger molars, with increased surface area, compared to carnivores, which have large sharp incisors and canines for cutting and tearing, and in comparison only small sharp molars with reduced surface area. The function of the teeth is the same for both herbivores and carnivores, and that is to break large food particles up into smaller particles, as part of physical digestion. However, the teeth have different structural adaptations as the animals they belong to eat different foods. Each of the different teeth types is specialised to break up different foods, for example the herbivore has large molars with an increased surface area to grind plant material up and break down the tough cell wall, compared to carnivores, whose molars are much smaller but significantly sharper to aid in tearing, grinding meat into smaller molecules. Herbivores have a diastema so that large amounts of the tough plant material can be chewed at once while carnivores do not have a diastema because protein is softer to breakdown

diet breaking herbivore plant-based cut incisors sharp ground release nutrients molar surface area ridges grind carnivores meat catch hold sharp front grasp incisors canines canines pointed holding cutting carnassial shearing consumption Omnivores combination herbivores carnivores sharp incisors grind holding flesh molars plant cellulose molars canine molars grinding cellulose Herbivore sideways increased canine killing molars surface incisors tearing break smaller physical structural different foods molars surface area molars sharper tearing molecules diastema softer