Do animals with extremely high bite forces have proportionally strong jawbones/ teeth, or will things start to shatter if full forces are exerted?
In: 5
They do have proportionaly strong jaws.
Like most thing in evolution, if it’s useless but is an energy expense, it will be selected against. Developing large muscles is a big expense, so if they’re useless (say, too strong for the bones) natural selection would either strengthen the jaw (if the bite strength is ultimately beneficial), or reduce the bite strength.
Latest Answers