BIOL 1902 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Ruffed Grouse, Digestion, Cecum
6 Feb 2019
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Document Summary
Animals face issues when eating plants because of tough structural components in leaves, and need to break these down in order to process them and get their nutrients. This process can be broken down into two categories. Radula is a sharp component, like a chainsaw, with teeth that come out to process plant tissues. Mandibles are modified mouthparts that are used to cut apart plant tissues. Caterpillars have mandibles to cut apart plant tissues. Leaf blotch miners are caterpillars that live inside the leaf and eat leaves from the inside. Modified teeth are teeth that have been modified to be used to eat plant material. Beavers have incisors and their teeth are orange because they are full of iron. Moose only have lower incisors, and use the upper part of their mouth, which is extremely hard, to hold in place branches/leaves so they can then use their lower incisors to pull the branches/leaves off.
