What do grasshoppers eat? It's not just grass! Research shows similarities with mammal teeth like never before

The mouths of mammals and insects have similarities, according to new research by the University ofLeicester.

The team of researchers used sophisticated three-dimensional techniques to map the shape of the mandibles of the grasshopper, and presented their findings in Methods in Ecology and Evolution.

There are over 11,000 species of insects. It's likely that not all grasshoppers eat grass. They play a range of important roles in the grassland and other environments.

Detailed study of the contents of the guts of grasshoppers is required to find out what they eat. There is a better way.

Like animals with teeth, the mouth parts of grasshoppers are different according to what they eat: some are molar-like and grind tough foods like grass, while others have sharper cutting edges. This approach has lacked precision and was only able to assign grasshoppers to broad feeding categories.

The research from the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol provides a new way to investigate the diet of the many species scientists have little information about.

Chris Stockey is the corresponding author of the study. He said something.

Knowing what animals eat is important to understanding the environment, but it can be difficult and time consuming if you study small or rare animals.

Powerful comparisons are one of the advantages of our method.

It is amazing that the mouth parts of mammals and insects have evolved independently for 400 million years.

Mark Purnell is the Director of the Center for Palaeobiology at the University of Leicester.

We looked at the shapes of the mouth parts of the insect and found differences related to diet.

Mandibles from grasshoppers that eat soft flesh have steep slopes and sharper cliff edges, while those that eat tough plant material, such as grass, have complex undulatinglandscapes.

Part of the huge collections kept behind the scenes for scientists to study was based on the research. Each year, new species are found in the most studied collections, such as Charles Darwin's.

The only way to learn about the lifestyles and diet of these organisms was to painstakingly dissection them. dissection is a slow process that can damage the specimen and limit their usefulness for further study.

The application of this new non-destructive method to museum collections provides an alternative way to learn about the ecology of rare animals while preserving them for future study.

The Senior Curator at the Natural History Museum was not involved in the research.

Combining modern analytical methods with historical samples from museum collections is a great example of how we can understand the diversity of our planet. This non-destructive approach could reveal the diet information for thousands of species, decades after the specimen were collected, as technology advances.

Dietary inference from dental topographic analysis of feeding tools in diverse animals is published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution.

More information: Christopher Stockey et al, Dietary inference from dental topographic analysis of feeding tools in diverse animals, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (2022). DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.13832 Journal information: Methods in Ecology and Evolution Citation: What do grasshoppers eat? It's not just grass! Research shows similarities with mammal teeth like never before (2022, March 16) retrieved 17 March 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-03-grasshoppers-grass-similarities-mammal-teeth.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.