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Friday, December 17, 2010

What Has?

Hi folks!  Time for a riddle.  You like riddles don't you?

What has the following features?
  • claws
  • no pores on skin; perspires through tongue to cool body
  • sharp, pointed front teeth to tear flesh
  • no flat back molar teeth to grind food
  • small salivary glands in the mouth (not needed to pre-digest grains and fruits)
  • acid saliva; no enzyme ptyalin to pre-digest grains
  • strong hydrochloric acid in stomach to digest tough animal muscle, bone, etc.
  • intestinal tract only 3 times body length, so rapidly decaying meat can pass out of body quickly
Man... You guys are good!  No tricking my vegetarian friends, indeed.  What Chucky has just described is a carnivore.

     car·ni·vore 
     [kahr-nuh-vawr, -vohr]
     -noun
     1.  an animal that eats flesh.
     2.  a flesh-eating mammal of the order Carnivora, comprising the dogs, cats, bears,
          seals, and weasels.
     3.  an insectivorous plant.

A herbivore?
  • no claws
  • perspires through millions of pores on skin
  • no sharp, pointed front teeth
  • has flat, back molar teeth to grind food
  • well-developed salivary glands, needed to pre-digest grains and fruits
  • alkaline saliva; much ptyalin to pre-digest grains
  • stomach acid 20 times weaker than that of meat-eaters
  • intestinal tract several times body length (plant foods decay slowly so can take their time to pass through the body) 
A human?
  • (see herbivore)

CreditThe Comparative Anatomy of Eating, Milton R. Mills, M.D.

Hi-dee hi-dee see-the-connection-ho my friends?

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