The anteater has a long tongue but no teeth. Is it worth it? Can you talk about it?

Teeth can help us chew, cut off and grind food. Most mammals need to rely on teeth to survive, but some animals have given up their teeth in evolution. Why do they give up their teeth and what do they rely on to survive? The ancestors of anteaters appeared on the earth about 66 million years ago. At that time, they lived in trees, and they also had teeth, just like their sloths and captive fish. Only then the anteater came down from the tree and found termites and ants on the ground. In order to eat these delicious foods, they gave up their teeth and grew an incredibly long tongue, which can reach 45 cm in length. Moreover, their tongue is not only very long, but also very elastic, and it is covered with thick mucus. Any ant who is touched will be stuck to it by the mucus on the tongue and cannot escape. So how should anteaters without teeth chew their food?

Ants are not soft insects. In fact, after they catch ants in their tongues, they will be crushed on the upper jaw and swallowed. At the same time, anteater can't produce gastric acid, so it needs formic acid from ants for digestion. Just as some birds devour some stones, these stones rub against each other in their stomachs, which can help birds crush food. With the passage of time, the constant friction of these stones will become smoother and rounder. And anteaters will do similar things, because they have no teeth to crush their prey, so they have to swallow some small stones or grains of sand, which can further help them digest food.

According to the statistics of scientists, an anteater can eat about 35, ants a day, which requires several anthills to provide so much food. However, compared with their weight, these foods are actually not many, and 35, ants add up to less than 35 grams. So millions of years ago, left the tree, degenerated teeth, just to eat these ants worth it? 1 grams of ants are rich in protein, eating more than twice as much meat and fish. Especially protein, which contains about 77 grams per 1 grams of ants, is one of the most nutritious foods in the world. At the same time, it does not need to compete with some large beasts for prey, and there is no danger. After all, ants can't resist anteaters. They hide in the anthill at most, but they are not powerless to fight back. They can escape to deeper caves or spit out toxic acid.

In fact, some ants will eject their huge and powerful jaws, which can help them eject from dangerous places to safe areas, and sometimes even hold the tongue of anteater. It's just that anteaters are smarter, and the mucus and flexibility on their tongues will enable them to complete the task of catching quickly. According to statistics, carnivores can stretch and retract their tongues into the ant ball twice a second, which is more than 12 times a minute, and they need to explore 2 ant mounds a day, but they will not destroy any ant mounds. For carnivores, this is where their food storage needs careful care, because it only takes a few days for the ant colony to recover and provide delicious food again.