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Crocodiles could be world champions, killing with the most bite force ever measured in a living animal, according to a new study. In fact, their bite power rivals that of the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex.
What Animal Has The Strongest Jaws
Paleobiologist Gregory M. Erickson and colleagues subjected all 23 species of living crocodiles to an unprecedented bite test. The “winners” – saltwater crocodiles – snapped their jaws shut with a bite force of 3,700 pounds per square inch (psi), or 16,460 newtons.
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In contrast, you can tear a steak apart at 150 to 200 pounds per square inch (890 newtons). Hyenas, lions and tigers generate about 1,000 pounds per square inch (4,450 newtons).
And while a 2008 computer model calculated that a 21-foot (6.5-meter) great white shark would produce a bite force of nearly 4,000 pounds per square inch (17,790 Newtons), that figure has not been directly measured.
Erickson and colleagues physically measured the bites of several 17-foot (5.2-meter) saltwater crocodiles, as well as Nile crocodiles, alligators, caimans, gharials and other crocodiles, some for the first time.
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The team spent countless hours battling reptiles at the Alligator Farm Zoological Park in St. Louis. Augustine of Florida and get him to bite the force sensor – “very expensive, very durable, leather-lined, waterproof scales.”
“Testing is like killing dragons by a committee, often with ten or more people to test a single animal,” said Erickson of Florida State University.
For each species of crocodile, the transducer recorded impressive strength, Erickson said, suggesting that a large bite is at the core of what it means to be a crocodile.
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“That’s why I think they were so successful,” he said. “They’ve used remarkable design to produce bite force and pressure to occupy ecological niches at the water’s edge for 85 million years, and no one has come along to take those niches away from them.”
Surprisingly, at least for Erickson, the differences in bite force among crocodile species depend heavily on body size. In many groups of animals, this variation is associated with different jaw shapes and tooth shapes, but these characteristics did not greatly affect crocodile chewing in tests conducted by the team.
This suggests that crocodiles were big stingers at the dawn of their evolutionary line, said Erickson, a sponsor of the National Geographic Society’s Committee on Exploration and Research. (The society owns National Geographic News.)
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“I think the most primitive development of crocodiles was basically as a force-generating machine,” Erickson said. Changes in the muzzle and teeth appeared later, showing a powerful bite of prey ranging from fish and snakes to birds, mammals and even insects. (Rare images: A crocodile attacks an elephant.)
“Think of a Weed Eater with a big engine that has attachments like a lawn mower or a tree trimmer. Over the course of evolution, [crocodiles] have mostly played with these types of adaptations,” said Erickson, who led the new study, published on Wednesday. in PLoS ONE magazine.
In a typical crocodile environment, “big game comes to the water’s edge, clams grow there, birds land – and everything around this water they can eat.”
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Paleobiologist Laura Porro, who was not involved in the new study, added: “People have been talking about how differences in snout shape, tooth shape and diet can affect crocodile biomechanics, but no one has been able to gather data. all these data are extraordinary.
The new data could shed light not only on living crocodiles, but also on the extinct animals that underlie the crocodilian family tree, said Porro of the University of Chicago, who studies living alligators as well as biomechanical models of extinct reptiles.
“This kind of work with live animals can help us test our models,” he said. “And I think you could definitely extend that model to fossil crocodiles, even giant ones that looked relatively similar to modern crocodiles.”
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“We tried some 17-foot [5-meter] saltwater crocodiles,” he said. “If you scale the results to 20 feet, you get estimates of 7,700 pounds [34,250 Newtons], which is the lower limit for Tyrannosaurus bite strength estimates.
“So if you want to see what the bite force of a Tyrannosaurus rex looks like, go and see one of those crocodiles.”
In addition, Erickson calculated that the extinct Deinosuchus, or “terrible crocodile”, had a bite force estimated at 23,100 pounds per square inch (102,750 Newtons), which is even more than, according to new estimates, the bite of a Tyrannosaurus rex. at 12,814 psi (57,000 newtons).
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Porro of the University of Chicago noted that the muscles of the Tyrannosaurus Rex were not preserved, so estimates of the dinosaur’s bite force are based on its body size, broad skull, and short snout.
According to Porro, these T. rex bones seemed to be able to bite harder than any crocodile. “But then again, if you dissect the head of a crocodile, you will be surprised how much muscle mass it has. They have huge shells… all the muscles that cover the jaw, so who knows?” she said. “Maybe it’s because crocodiles have more muscles.”
We’ll never know for sure if a crocodile or a tyrannosaurus rex was the world food-eating champion (and in any case, the giant prehistoric shark probably surpassed it).
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He noted that modern crocodiles are surprisingly similar to prehistoric ones, which in some ways makes it easier for researchers of ancient crocodiles. But “today we don’t have anything like a tyrannosaurus rex.”
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Animal bite force is a complex science, and you’re likely to find all sorts of conflicting numbers, whether measured in pounds per square inch (psi), newtons-force, or pounds-force. On top of that, performing bite force tests is difficult and rarely a priority for animal scientists.
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If this is true, how can we be sure that animals have the strongest bites in the world? Thanks to tests carried out by some scientists and sophisticated computer models, we can determine a reliable estimate of the strength of an animal’s bite.
Before we move on to the ten strongest bite forces in the animal kingdom, we will explain how bite forces are measured, why they are important to animals, and how we can modify them.
Bite force, simply put, is the force applied to the teeth during a bite. Essentially, it refers to how long an animal can close its mouth and how much force it exerts in doing so.
Strongest Bite Force In The Animal Kingdom
In most cases, bite force is measured in pounds per square inch or PSI per square. This measurement refers to how many pounds of force act on one square inch.
If you are familiar with scuba diving, you understand that water pressure is expressed in PSI units. This is how many pounds of pressure is applied to each square inch of your body. Clamping forces are measured in the same way.
The bite force of an animal in many cases depends on the size. Larger animals tend to have stronger bites. It is also of the utmost importance that the animals have sufficiently strong teeth, a correct skull structure, and powerful jaw muscles adapted to bending the jaws with such force.
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In the wild, having a strong bite force is incredibly useful. As a predator, the ability to apply tremendous pressure when biting prey can kill, incapacitate, or trap and hold prey. You can even crack bones to get to their brains.
For herbivores, the stronger bite force allows them to chew on hard food such as bamboo, chew on nuts and seeds, and help defend against predators in a pinch.
Many animals with higher bite force are considered apex predators, and the strength of their jaws makes them effective hunters.
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The easiest way to test bite strength is to use something like a strain gauge or bite meter. You bite the device with an animal and electronically measure the force that is pressed against it. Scales are similar to the electronic scales that people use to check their weight.
Of course, it’s not easy to catch and handle many of the strongest animals, and you can’t politely ask animals to bite as hard as possible on a metal plate balance. It would be incredibly difficult to do this with sharks, for example.
One thing that helps determine bite strength is to look at what the animals are capable of. It’s a bit like how you use projectiles to scale the power of your favorite superheroes, but much more accurate.
Bite Force: The Strongest Jaws In The Animal Kingdom
For example, if you know an animal
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