How do lions teeth help lions eat meat?

Answer 1

A lion has 30 teeth in its mouth. 4 canines,also known as "fangs" (2 upper canines and 2 lower canines), 12 incisors (6 upper and 6 lower incisors), 10 premolars (5 upper and 5 lower premolars), and 4 molars (2 upper and 2 lower molars). Premolars and molars are called carnassial teeth in all carnivores. The full set of adult lion teeth are gained between the age of 13 and 15 months. The 4 canines are probably the lion's most important offensive weapon, as they are mainly used to grab and kill prey. Lion's canines are held steadily deep inside the skull. This prevents them from breaking off during a strong bite. Lion's canines are its thicker and longer teeth. They are usually between 6-8cm long, but there are also lions with 10cm long canines. Lion's canines are slightly serrated at their back side, and this helps the lion to grab steadier its prey during a bite. Lion's canines are extremely strong teeth (sometimes during territorial fights between male lions, a lion pierces through the skull of the other male lion with its canines, even though most of the times, a territorial fight ends when it is clear which lion is stronger, without having to fight until a lion gets killed). As for the premolars, their sharp shape and their position makes them work like a pair of scissors, for cutting pieces of meat and even cut through bone. More specifically, the upper premolars are not directly above the lower premolars. This means that when a lion bites, the lower premolars meet the upper premolars not on their top, but on their side. This way, they co-operate by working like scissors. As for the lion's molars, they are sharp and conical, also designed for cutting and tearing flesh, or cutting through bone. Lions have small incisors that help to scrape meat from bones. Its tongue also helps for this, as the tongue's upper surface is covered with rough spines, called papialle. These small bumps on the tongue surface enable the lion to hold on to meat while eating and also to remove parasites when grooming. All the lion's teeth are equipped with very sensitive nerves (inside the teeth) that allow the lion, during a bite, to find where the veins and the arteries of its prey are, by feeling the blood flowing inside the veins and the arteries of its prey. Also, these nerves help the lion know when its prey is killed, because then the blood stops flowing (and also because its prey stops breathing). Lion's jaws are short (for example, by comparison to wolf's jaws). They are also not capable of moving side-to-side, like the jaw of a herbivore. This helps the lion to give a steady and more effective bite, as the jaw follows a strictly vertical, scissor-like motion. The inability of the jaw to move side-to-side is common to all cats. Lions, like all cats, do not chew their food, but swallow it in chunks. Generally speaking, the lion combines a set of big, thick and sharp teeth with an impressive bite force of 1000 pounds (1 pound=0.453 kg).