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Jawless grazing; Would it be better? Or worse?
Topic Started: Sep 7 2011, 02:14 PM (457 Views)
naruacool723
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Raccoon
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Okay, so i've heard that if you want a good grazer, give it a duck shaped mouth, add an array of teeth at the front, and then make it chew to be able to digest it.
But what I've benn thinking for an animal for my Auran planet project (Not available to anyone in the public right now) is that a grazer could have a jawless mouth. In this kind of mouth, the teeth simply are very strong, and can pull up a clump of grass into a slightly protruding mouth. I thought of this when I was watching my dog, who loves veggies, including carrots and many others, snack on some crabgrass, one of his favorites. Of course, when dogs eat grass, they have some trouble to get it into their mouth. But what if the mouth was flat, jawless, and was basically parallel to the ground? Then, if it protruded slightly, and was very strong, it could consume much more grass than a dog could!

I am only posting this to see if it will work. What do you think of it?
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Leonard: "Oh, Sheldon's escaped and is terrorizing the village."

Sheldon: *Knock, knock, knock.* "Penny." *Knock, knock, knock.* "Penny."
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TAXESbutNano
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I'm going back to basics.
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I'd say that as long as it had a tongue that could get the grass to the back of the throat to be swallowed, and a mechanism of getting the grass instead of it sliding past the beak/teeth/whatever, then the mouth would work. Digestion, however, might have some problems with digesting un-chewed grass.
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naruacool723
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Raccoon
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That's what I mean, the mouth has, like on many of Sessbin's animals (see the Habitable Zone) a jawless dental battery, and then at the back of the throat, a series of grinding plates. But can a jawless mouth have a dental battery?

EDIT: Oh, and there is a tongue.
Edited by naruacool723, Sep 7 2011, 05:19 PM.
Raccoons are awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pikaia is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dogs are awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Penny: "What's wrong?"
Leonard: "Oh, Sheldon's escaped and is terrorizing the village."

Sheldon: *Knock, knock, knock.* "Penny." *Knock, knock, knock.* "Penny."
The Big Bang Theory

Come check out Paleoterra!
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