Herbivores Vs Carnivores

The variation between animals is a naturally occurring phenomenon that is a ramification of genetic deviation. As a result of this, animals can gain certain traits that help them become more favorable in their environment however, in the process of them becoming more favorable in one trait they can also lose or become less favorable to another trait (Slater et al. 2009). These nonrandom vicissitudes in allele frequency are caused by sexual selection or natural selection and over a period of time can cause adaptations in animals (Schussler 2014). Moreover, mammal skulls are an interesting entity of how animals have adapted over time as a result of natural and sexual selection. Mammals have selected a variety of traits over time such as protection
against predators, reproducing and communication between organisms. Furthermore, this study is concentrated on how differences in diet in animals leads to diverse characteristics in the organisms skulls. Based upon earlier research conducted by James Cooper and Mark Westneat, their study concluded that there are significant differences in law length and skull characteristics between different diet types. (Cooper & Westneat, 2009). In addition, another study on animal eye length found that eye location can determine if an animal is a predator or prey (Banks et al. 2015). For these reasons, in this study we were interested in understanding how variations in diet lead to differences in skull characteristics in carnivore and herbivores. One question that lead us to perform this study was how eye size and mandible length differentiates in herbivores and carnivores? This study was looking at how animals with different diets affects how it adapts and how their skulls are shaped.
The hypotheses that was tested in this experiment was diet explicitly comparing between herbivores and carnivores will determine eye size and mandible length. The null hypothesis for this experiment is that there will be no difference in jaw length and eye length when comparing carnivores and herbivores. The prediction for this experiment is that herbivores will have larger eye diameter in order to locate predators and carnivores will have shorter stronger jaws because they require a more forceful bite power. This prediction is based upon the fact that animals with a herbivore diet do not require a strong bite power. However, animals with a carnivore diet require a stronger shorter jaw because they must be able to bite and consume a bigger prey. In addition, our prediction on eye size came from the fact that herbivores want larger eyes to be able to locate food and guard themselves again prey. For this experiment, the Herbivores should have larger eyes and larger jaws as a result of their prey. On the contrary, carnivores should have smaller eyes and smaller jaws because of their diet and tropic
level.
Methods
In this experiment, we tested for eye and jaw length in herbivores and carnivores; we measured three herbivores and three carnivores.
The herbivores we tested were a rabbit, deer, and beaver. In addition, the carnivores we tested were a coyote, bobcat and mink. There were three animal skulls measured for each type of animal in the herbivore and carnivore group. This results in a total 18 replicates. Furthermore, the independent variables in this study are the herbivores and carnivores being tested. Additionally, the dependent variables in this experiment is the diameter of the eye socket and the diameter of the mandible. There was no control in this experiment because we are comparing two animal groups. This study was carried out by measuring the mandible and eye socket diameter with a ruler as our measuring
instrument. The data in this experiment was collected by measuring the diameter of the eye socket and mandible in millimeters. The measurements for the mandible were measured from the back of the animals jaw to the tip of the jaw. Furthermore, eye socket length were measured by measuring from one eye socket to another. To obtain the correct data we subtracted the number we obtained for the eye socket by the length between them. Moreover, we also measured each carnivore and herbivore skull in millimeters. These numbers were obtained to standardize our results. We did this by dividing each measurement of mandible and eye socket length by the entire length of the animal’s skull to obtain the ratio that both the eye and jaw takes up. After all the recordings were completed, we took the average mandible length in herbivores and carnivores, and computed the T-test to see if there was a significant difference in mandible length. Furthermore, we also took the average of all the herbivores eye socket lengths, and averaged all the carnivores’ eye socket length. Using the average eye socket length in herbivores and carnivores the T-test was used to test if this study was significant.