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The tuatara uses its jaw to tear food apart like a “steak knife”.
While most reptiles swallow or bite their food, the tuatara has highly
specialised jaws to saw food apart, allowing it to eat food much bigger than
its mouth.
“The slicing jaws of the tuatara allow it to eat a wide range of prey including beetles, spiders, crickets and small lizards. There are also several grizzly reports of sea birds being found decapitated following predation by tuatara.”
“Although the tuatara-like chewing mechanism is rare today, fossils from Europe to Mexico show us that during the time of the dinosaurs (about 160 million years ago) some fossil relatives of the tuatara used a similar system and it was much more widespread.” - Dr Marc Jones, Lead researcher, formerly UCL
Reference:
http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/fundamental-bioscience/2012/120606-n-chewing-not-just-for-mammals.aspx
“The slicing jaws of the tuatara allow it to eat a wide range of prey including beetles, spiders, crickets and small lizards. There are also several grizzly reports of sea birds being found decapitated following predation by tuatara.”
“Although the tuatara-like chewing mechanism is rare today, fossils from Europe to Mexico show us that during the time of the dinosaurs (about 160 million years ago) some fossil relatives of the tuatara used a similar system and it was much more widespread.” - Dr Marc Jones, Lead researcher, formerly UCL
Reference:
http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/fundamental-bioscience/2012/120606-n-chewing-not-just-for-mammals.aspx
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