peccaries

However, the muscles that operate the disk originate from different points in peccaries and suids.

Why putting your hand in a peccary’s mouth is a really bad idea Darren Naish 2006

Judging from fossils the primitive tooth type for peccaries is bunodonty (viz, where each tooth sports multiple low rounded mound-like cusps), but zygodonty (viz, where mound-like cusps are connected by transverse crests) evolved several times.

Archive 2006-07-01 Darren Naish 2006

Until recently there was just a single wire fence seperating the peccaries from the public, and I always thought this was a bit dangerous in view of the immense teeth these animals have.

More on what I saw at the zoo Darren Naish 2006

I made a mistake: the detailed, similar snout anatomy present in both suids and peccaries is more likely shared, not convergent.

More on what I saw at the zoo Darren Naish 2006

However, the muscles that operate the disk originate from different points in peccaries and suids.

Archive 2006-08-01 Darren Naish 2006

Until recently there was just a single wire fence seperating the peccaries from the public, and I always thought this was a bit dangerous in view of the immense teeth these animals have.

Archive 2006-06-01 Darren Naish 2006

Judging from fossils the primitive tooth type for peccaries is bunodonty (viz, where each tooth sports multiple low rounded mound-like cusps), but zygodonty (viz, where mound-like cusps are connected by transverse crests) evolved several times.

Meet peccary # 4 Darren Naish 2006

I’m guessing that this is somehow relevant to the major fusion of the sutures seen in peccaries (maybe peccaries have evolved a novel solution to coping with strains built up during tooth occlusion), but I don’t know if this area has been studied.

Why putting your hand in a peccary’s mouth is a really bad idea Darren Naish 2006

In all placental mammals the lower canine bites ‘ahead’ of the upper canine (look at sloths and you’ll see that they differ – almost certainly because one of their canines isn’t actually a true canine), and in peccaries the almost total lack of enamel on the posterior surface of the lower canine means that it is constantly sharpened as it moves against the enamelled anterior face of the upper canine.

Why putting your hand in a peccary’s mouth is a really bad idea Darren Naish 2006

In all placental mammals the lower canine bites ‘ahead’ of the upper canine (look at sloths and you’ll see that they differ – almost certainly because one of their canines isn’t actually a true canine), and in peccaries the almost total lack of enamel on the posterior surface of the lower canine means that it is constantly sharpened as it moves against the enamelled anterior face of the upper canine.

Archive 2006-08-01 Darren Naish 2006