Describe some of the adaptations of the teeth of mammalian h

Describe some of the adaptations of the teeth of mammalian herbivores to counter the wear caused by grazing coarse vegetation like grasses.

Solution

the herbivores to feed on the plant material itself. The teeth became broad, extremely hard and high-crowned to grind the tough fibrous plant material. Their teeth function to rupture cell walls to release nutrients that would otherwise pass through the gut undigested, and to fragment tough, fibrous plant parts to increase surface area available for digestive enzymes to act on. Herbivores often have more square-shaped teeth with broad but complex biting surfaces – planes cut by rows of low crests or ridges connecting small cusps. Vegetation is ground or milled between opposing teeth when lowers slide along uppers in the direction opposite the orientation of the crests. For cows and sheep, those crests run anteroposteriorly, and horizontal movement during mastication is buccolingual.