Skulls, Skeletons, Canines & Claws

[Kingtheropod]

(10-30-2016, 04:02 AM)GrizzlyClaws Wrote: The densest tiger canine holotype I acquired so far in my samples is a 4 inches/70 grams Amur tiger lower canine.

That's 40% heavier than an older male lion canine at the same length. I also look for heavier lion canine holotype if it is available.

It would make sense from an evolutionary point of view that the tiger would have larger canines compared to the lion. In order for a tiger to take down large prey by itself, it would make intuitive sense that a tiger would need larger canines to kill larger prey on its own. Even though lions can surely go after just as big game as tiger (e.g. Cape buffalo), they don't need to have the super sized canines because they have a pride to do the work for them.

The same can be said for Smilodon fatalis for example, as the prey got bigger, the need to have bigger canines and claws developed. You don't need big teeth if you don't need them. A tiger being alone hunting a large 1000 kg Gaur for example needs those teeth.

Also, of course, as the teeth get larger, the root also needs to grow to support those stresses.

Sadly, the information available on claw size is rather limited. However Chris Heiden of the Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species in an email gave me a few measurements of Tiger, lion and Liger claws and told me that tiger claws a slightly larger then lions. The claws of Ligers are 25% larger then lions or tigers he says.

The question I want to ask, how do Jaguars and Leopards compare? Reply