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.
[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)
Credit: The Comparative Anatomy of Eating, Milton R. Mills, M.D.
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