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Australia has some tough nuts to crack. But to some species of rat kangaroo, busting into the extremely hard seeds of the sandalwood and quandong trees down under is all in a night\u2019s work. Commonly called \u201cbettongs\u201d (genus Bettongia), these nocturnal marsupials scurry around at night foraging on these seeds, as well as roots, leaves, grubs, fruits, and fungi. In a new study<\/a> published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, researchers compared the jaws of the four living bettong species to understand their remarkable seed-cracking powers.<\/p>\n \u201cUnderstanding animal dietary needs and their associated adaptations is invaluable information for conservation of threatened species,\u201d said study co-author and comparative anatomist Rex Mitchell, a Flinders University postdoctoral fellow, in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Two of the living species (B. lesueur and B. penicillata) break into the tough-shelled seeds to get at the soft meat inside. Although they otherwise eat very different diets, researchers expected to find convergent cranial adaptations in those two seed-cracking species\u2014similar adaptations in their skulls and muscles to solve the shared biomechanical challenge of biting through such hard materials. Animal diets are typically reflected in the shapes of their crania, jaws, and teeth.<\/p>\n ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Read more: \u201cHow Rodents Spread Across the Earth<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n Based on scans of 161 bettong skulls from museum collections, the research team conducted a 3-D comparison of shapes. The burrowing bettong (B. lesueur\u00a0or \u2018boodie\u2019) had a shorter face than the other three species, an adaptation you\u2019d expect in an animal exerting higher bite forces. A shorter, sturdier face offers a mechanical advantage, as more muscle force can be converted to bite force. So, the boodie\u2019s nut-cracking superpower is its short snout.<\/p>\n The other seed-cracker, the brush-tailed bettong (B. penicillata\u00a0or \u2018woylie\u2019), had a longer face, more like the two species that don\u2019t eat tough-hulled seeds. However, the woylie had more chisel-like premolars set in a reinforced position on the jaw. So, the woylie\u2019s nut-cracking superpower is a tooth anatomy adapted to withstand the forces of cracking open seeds. The woylie likely needs a longer snout to accommodate its large nasal passages that are used to sniff out truffles, one of the animal\u2019s preferred foods.<\/p>\n ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. The study authors said they were surprised to find such distinct jaw superpowers in the two bettong species that eat hard-hulled seeds. Rather than converging on a common solution to the biomechanical challenge, in an evolutionary sense, they had each come up with their own. \u201cThis points to the independent acquisition of seed predation and associated adaptations in B. lesueur and B. penicillata,\u201d the scientists wrote in the paper.<\/p>\n The bettong skulls demonstrate that there\u2019s more than one way to crack a hard problem! Enjoying\u00a0 Nautilus<\/a>? Subscribe to our free newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Lead image: Petr Hamern\u00edk \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n Devin Reese <\/p>\n
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