Plant-eating mammals sport bigger bellies than meat eaters
Body cavity volume of 126 animals shows herbivores have larger bellies than carnivores
These skeletons are spilling their guts about the size of the body cavity that housed these animals’ stomach and intestines.
Using digital 3-D scans of mounted skeletons, researchers estimated the body cavity volume in 126 species. Of the 76 mammal species, plant eaters had bigger bellies; their relative torso volumes were about 1.5 times as large as those of carnivores, researchers report online November 4 in the Journal of Anatomy.
The study is the first to quantitatively test the long-held idea that herbivores have bigger torsos, says Marcus Clauss of the University of Zurich. Plant eaters are thought to need extra space for complex systems that digest a leafy diet.