Relate Teeth to Diet

There are many types of animals that have teeth. Fish have teeth, and so do lizards, snakes and frogs.

These animals generally have small, pointed teeth that are used for biting but not for chewing.

Mammals (like bears, lions, horses and humans) have teeth too.

Unlike other animals, mammals have a variety of teeth that are used for different purposes.

The type of teeth they have can tell you a lot about the types of food that they eat.

For example, you can tell this is a meat eater's (carnivore's) skull as you can see the big canine teeth, used for grabbing hold of the prey:

You can also see the small incisors at the front of the jaw, used for nibbling flesh, as well as the molars at the back, which act like scissors to cut up the meat into smaller pieces.

If you compare that tiger's skull (above) with the skull of a herbivore (below), you can see immediate differences:

First off, there are no canines (no need to grab the prey!) and the molars at the back have very rough surfaces, designed for grinding up the plant material. 

The big incisors at the front of this deer skull tear off plants like grass and leaves so that they can be chewed up.

So, with that in mind, let's explore how different teeth determine the diet of an animal.