Tuatara reptile slices food with 'steak-knife teeth' (BBC) {living fossil}

[eppur_se_muova]

By Victoria Gill
BBC Nature

New Zealand's tuatara has a unique way of chewing its food, say scientists who have studied its jaws in detail.

This beak-headed reptile uses a "steak-knife sawing motion" as it chews.

This could help explain how the species has continued to adapt to a changing world - and changes in available prey - over more than 200 million years.

A computer model of the tuatara, recreating its jaws as it munched on prey, has revealed that it chews like no other land animal.

This seems to allow it to "slice up" food that is too big for its mouth.
***
more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/18249270




Paleo fans may remember the tuatara ... like the coelacanth, it is virtually unchanged from dino days.

[Javaman]

1. Sizzzzzler...nt