Alligators Have the Fiercest Bite in Animal Kingdom
Posted on: Tuesday, 9 September 2003, 06:00 CDT
Associated Press -- Alligators have the fiercest bite, according to researchers who found the reptiles have more clamping power in their jaws than hyenas, lions or the dusky shark.
Three researchers found a 12-footer at a St. Augustine alligator farm biting down with the weight of a "small sedan," or 2,125 pounds.
A larger gator chomped down much harder, with a bite force of 2,960 pounds, said Kent Vliet, a University of Florida zoologist and the author of a recent Journal of Zoology paper on the subject.
"The bite force we get from alligators is extraordinary," said Greg Erickson, a paleobiologist at Florida State University. "They're really some of the biting champions of the world."
Gators use their powerful mouths, filled with about 80 teeth, to catch and crush hard-shelled freshwater turtles for food. They also have used that force in human encounters. Thirteen people in Florida have died from alligator attacks since 1948, according to state records.
For their study, Vliet, Erickson and an Arizona scientist devised $11,000 bite bars - long rods with metal plates at the end. The plates were padded with leather to protect the swamp dwellers' choppers from damage. When a gator bit down, the force would compress the plates, squeezing sensors tucked inside to gauge the animal's biting power.
Bites were provoked from more than 40 captive gators of varying sizes. That was easier than retrieving the devices. Once they had wrapped their jaws around a bite bar, some of the alligators wouldn't let go for more than 20 minutes, Erickson said.
The researchers said the information helps them better understand the feeding biomechanics of extinct reptiles and can help answer questions about an animal's choice of prey.
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