Carnassial

tooth type

Carnassials are large teeth used for shearing flesh and bone in a scissor- or shear-like way. They are found in many carnivorous mammals,

Carnassials of an Eurasian wolf

In the Carnivora, the carnassials are the modified last upper premolar and the first molar. In the Creodonta, the carnassials were further back in the jaw–first upper and second lower or second upper and third lower molars.[1]

Wear and cracking of the carnassial teeth in a wild carnivore (e.g. wolves, lions) may result in the death of the individual due to starvation.

References change

  1. Henry Fairfield Osborn (1907). Evolution of mammalian molar teeth. Macmillan. Retrieved 20 January 2011.