Morokanth teeth

From: Martin Crim <mcrim_at_erols.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 1996 20:02:34 -0400 (EDT)


sandy petersen writes:
>martin Crim
>>Here we have these meat-eating critters, but they have herbivore
>>dentition and limited tool use.
> Martin's lack of knowledge of mammalian dentition seems to
>have led him to a common error -- the idea that carnivores have
>"tougher" teeth because they eat meat.

I respectfully disagree. Sandy basically adopts my first option, to change the dentition, by saying that Morokanth are omnivores. Fine so far as it goes, though tapirs (the nearest RW analogue) are herbivores. I found the following in the Grolier CD-ROM encyclopedia article on perissodactyls: "The cheek, or grinding, teeth are well-developed, complex, and massive, whereas canine teeth are small if present at all. Perissodactyls graze (eat grass) and browse (munch shoots and leaves from bushes and trees)." Comparing them to pigs is incorrect, unless you also think zebras and rhinos are just like pigs.

        But how far does making them omnivores go? Sandy's an omnivore: let's see _him_ eat a dead sheep without tools. Sure, most animals can (like the not-hobbits of _Bored of the Rings_) eat anything they can wrestle down their gullets. But the question is "how do Morokanth butcher and eat herd-men and other herd animals?" Do they have tearing and ripping teeth to remove flesh from bone? Do they wait till it's good and rotten? Or do they have slaves and awakened herd-men cut it up for them? Apparently, Sandy favors the first option.

        Carnivores don't have "tougher" teeth than herbivores--something I never wrote--but they have different teeth from herbivores (and omnivores, for that matter). Humans have hands, with which to use tools, and can process animal flesh into bite-sized chunks without needing specialized teeth. Morokanth lack hands and have trouble using tools. Unless they have teeth similar to a tiger, lion, or other meat-eater, they have problems getting the meat off the carcass in small enough chunks to choke down.

        Sorry if this discussion grosses out vegetarians. - --Martin Crim


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