Thursday 31 May 2012

Tuatara reptile slices food with 'steak-knife teeth'


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.

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