Dental Ecomorphology of Extant European Carnivorans

Tooth shape was investigated in 20 species of extant European carnivorans with diverse diets. The rake angle of the upper and lower carnassial crests were measured. The rake angle is the angle of the leading surface of the crest with the direction of movement and is an indicator of the mechanical efficiency of a crest. The omnivores and meat/bone feeder were found to have very low and often negative rake angles for the carnassials. This indicates a greatly decreased effectiveness in cutting meat in these species, and may be due to conflicting constraints of needing to withstand the higher forces exerted on the teeth when consuming strong foods such as bone and vegetation. Also, rake angle was found to have no correlation with the relative length of the crest, with both the highest and lowest rake angles found in species with relatively short crests. Short crests may therefore be highly mechanically efficient, which would not have been suspected from solely measuring their length.