Myological and osteological approaches to gape and bite force reconstruction in Smilodon fatalis.

Autor: Deutsch AR; Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA., Berger A; Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA., Martens LL; Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA., Witt BR; Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA., Smith RLJ; Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA., Hartstone-Rose A; Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) [Anat Rec (Hoboken)] 2024 Jun 28. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jun 28.
DOI: 10.1002/ar.25529
Abstrakt: Masticatory gape and bite force are important behavioral and ecological variables. While much has been written about the highly derived masticatory anatomy of Smilodon fatalis, there remains a great deal of debate about their masticatory behaviors. To that end, we establish osteological proxies for masticatory adductor fascicle length (FL) based on extant felids and apply these along with previously validated techniques to S. fatalis to provide estimates of fascicle lengths, maximum osteological gapes, and bite force. While the best correlated FL proxies in extant felids do not predict particularly long fascicles, these proxies may be of value for less morphologically distinct felids. A slightly less well correlated proxy predicts a temporalis FL 15% longer than that of Panthera tigris. While angular maximum bony gape is significantly larger in S. fatalis than it is in extant felids, linear gape at the canine tip and carnassial notch were not significantly different from those of extant felids. Finally, we produce anatomical bite force estimates of 1283.74 N at the canine and 4671.41 N at the carnassial, which are similar in magnitude to estimates not of the largest felids but of the much smaller P. onca, with S. fatalis producing slightly less force at the canines and more at the carnassials. These estimates align with previous predictions that S. fatalis may have killed large prey with canine shearing bites produced, in part, by force contributions of the postcranial muscles.
(© 2024 The Author(s). The Anatomical Record published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Association for Anatomy.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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