There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
10-30-2016, 01:20 PM( This post was last modified: 10-30-2016, 01:41 PM by parvez )
(10-30-2016, 04:40 AM)GrizzlyClaws Wrote:
(10-30-2016, 04:18 AM)Kingtheropod Wrote:
(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?
Jaguar and leopard both have canine max at 4 inches, but the jaguar canine is just much more robust.
As for the claws, both lion and tiger seem to have 7 cm at max, and I haven't seen any big cat breaking that benchmark because the oversized claws cannot be fully retractable.
Jaguars are apex predators of their eco system. They also love water and hunt in water too. For this they need to have more robust canines to withhold slipping and escaping prey(for some prey they don't find grip to hold them). They regularly seem to kill caimans too. To hold such strong prey in jaws till their death is no easier task. They also target head region that is tougher to hold a grip on than the neck region that is relatively easy to pierce their canines into it and also relatively tender than head as skull comes into place. Its just opinion. Sorry if I misinterpreted this topic.