Compare and Contrast the Dentition and Digestive Tracts of Herbivores and Carnivores Using Named Examples
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
The fact that carnivores eat meat and herbivores don't is a well known fact of life, but the difference in the structure of their dentition and digestive tracts is not such common knowledge. The easiest way to make a comparison is to use two examples, one of each. I have chosen to look at the wolf and the sheep. The wolf is obviously the carnivore, and it has a much simpler digestive system in comparison to the sheep. It is literally one long pipe with the stomach near the beginning. It is much shorter than that of the sheep, who's intestine can be up to 25 times the length of it's body, in comparison to the wolf's intestine that is only 6 times its own body length. If we start right at the beginning of the digestive process, the first difference is instant. There is a big difference in the dentition of the two creatures. The jaw of the wolf contains incisors, canines, and ridged molar teeth, and is designed to rip and tear food up, and the sheep has doesn't have incisors or canine teeth in it's upper jaw. The molars are flat so that the sheep can tear at the grass, and it's jaw is designed to move from side to side so that the grass or cud is ground down...