By Nat Warburton. The relationship between what an animal eats and how big it is, is an interesting evolutionary problem. Herbivores seem to be able to get excessively big (think hippos, giraffe, elephants and our extinct marsupial friend diprotodon). Indeed, large body size can an advantage to being a herbivore. Herbivores require large communities of gut…
Tag: morphology
How to eat a mouse whole; changes in skull shape in a large elapid snake
By Matt Patterson and Ash Wolfe. It’s not that easy to eat your food whole. Especially if you don’t have limbs to assist you. That’s what snakes have to deal with every day. The challenge is even harder for young snakes, which have to develop their abilities to handle and ingest their food. The dugite…
Australian diggers – strong-arm excavators and aerators of Australian landscapes
By Meg Martin. Digging marsupials play an especially important ecological role in Australian ecosystems by helping with soil turnover, nutrient mixing, seed dispersal and increasing breakdown of organic materials. Many of these species are highly specialised diggers – with strong forlimbs and long claws. Historically, the interactions between bones and muscle during behaviour has been…
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