The Talas tuco-tuco ( Ctenomys talarum Thomas, 1898) is a South American subterranean rodent that digs using both forelimbs and incisors, the latter being used when animals face hard soils and fibrous roots. In this rodent, the incisors are also used during intermale competition for mates. Bite forces were measured on wild females (n = 21) and males (n = 21) (both adult and young individuals) using a force transducer. Bite force was significantly higher in adult males than in females (32 vs. 27 N, respectively). Bite forces calculated on the physiological cross-section of jaw adductor muscles in dissected specimens were slightly higher than in vivo measurements. Regressions against body mass showed that bite force scaled with positive allometry, with slopes of 0.89 (females) and 0.99 (males). No significant differences were observed, neither in the slope nor in the y intercept of both sexes’ equations; therefore intersexual differences in bite forces observed in adults should mainly be due to size dimorphism. Considering that soil hardness of C. talarum’s typical habitat averages 100 N/cm2, and taking into account incisor’s cross-section, it was assessed that the pressure exerted by jaw adductor muscles at the incisors level is three times higher than that required for soil penetration.
Mammals have developed sophisticated strategies adapting to particular locomotor modes, feeding habits, and social interactions. Many rodent species have acquired a fossorial, semi-fossorial, or even subterranean life-style, converging on morphological, anatomical, and ecological features but diverging in the final arrangement. These ecological variations partially depend on the functional morphology of their digging tools. Muscular and mechanical features (e.g., lever arms relationship) of the bite force were analyzed in three caviomorph rodents with similar body size but different habits and ecological demands of the jaws. In vivo forces were measured at incisors' tip using a strain gauge load cell force transducer whereas theoretical maximal performance values, mechanical advantages, and particular contribution of each adductor muscle were estimated from dissections in specimens of Ctenomys australis (subterranean, solitary), Octodon degus (semi-fossorial, social), and Chinchilla laniger (ground-dweller, colonial). Our results showed that C. australis bites stronger than expected given its small size and C. laniger exhibited the opposite outcome, while O. degus is close to the expected value based on mammalian bite force versus body mass regressions; what might be associated to the chisel-tooth digging behavior and social interactions. Our key finding was that no matter how diverse these rodents' skulls were, no difference was found in the mechanical advantage of the main adductor muscles. Therefore, interspecific differences in the bite force might be primarily due to differences in the muscular development and force, as shown for the subterranean, solitary and territorial C. australis versus the more gracile, ground-dweller, and colonial C. laniger.
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