Scientists have learned a bit more about crocodilian species and a weird feature that they all possess. It turns out that alligators and related crocodilian species have a second jaw joint that they use to distribute the extreme force of their bite.
Crocodilians have the strongest bite of any animal. They live in tropical and temperate regions worldwide and are usually the top predators in their ecosystems. They can bite with a force of more than 16,000 newtons, which is absolutely enormous. In comparison, the human bite is just 500 newtons. It's likely that this bite evolved back in the Mesozoic era, when they competed with species such as the T. rex and other large predators.
"Though they have a reputation as 'living fossils' and indeed have patrolled Earth's waterways for millions of years, they aren't just some holdover or relic from the days of the dinosaurs," said Casey Holliday of the University of Missouri, who led the research. "In fact, they have continued to evolve and continue to reveal new features that are surprisingly similar in function to those we find in mammals, birds and other animals. Crocodilians are a treasure trove of adaptations that can help us understand the form, function and evolution of many animals."
In this latest study, the researchers looked at an alligator head with imaging, computational and 3-D modeling tools. This revealed the second joint that seems to distribute the bite force throughout the skull and stabilizes the jaw in order to prevent twisting during feeding.
"When we discovered that crocs had built this new jaw joint, it made us re-evaluate how mammals actually evolved our jaw joint and reinterpret what we thought we knew about where parts of our jaw joint came from," said Holliday. "It's one of those awesome 'tapestry of life' stories that's given us a new way of looking at 250 million years of evolution for crocs and also 250 million years of independent evolution toward mammals."
The findings reveal a bit more about crocodilians and also their evolution. It also may have implications for further research; by understanding the unique features in crocodilians, researchers may be able to transfer it over to other health studies.
The findings will be presented by Holliday at the American Association of Anatomists Annual Meeting during Experimental Biology 2016.
