From:
"Sukie Crandall"
Date: 2009-02-15 20:37:54 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: I've noticed an oft-repeated statement that plant matter is digested in the
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
I got a mail about the specializations of
some species which are extreme herbivores,
the ones that aren't just breaking down tender
leaves as omnivores comfortably can, but
dealing with low nutrient and highly fibrous
plants such as mature grass.
BUT that is a specialized situation in one
direction, just as strict carnivores are specialized
in a totally different direction.
You would NOT expect the carnivora morphology
to be descended from a specialized plant diet, and
it is NOT descended from a highly specialized plant
diet as far as I know. The ancestors of carnivora
were omnivores and insectivores who then trended
in their own specialized direction from what I can
see.
For that reason the comparison of carnivores to long
term omnivores (such as the human line) is a more
useful comparison about function in the discussion
about the cecum and the small intestine than a
comparison to animals which specialized in their
own very different direction, for example cows or
horses.
The problem isn't the original noticing of the
morphological differences. It's that some folks later
took it past that into comparisons of species that are
specialized so differently from carnivora that the recent
and more extreme functional statements aren't
applicable for ferret taxonomy, morphology, or
physiology.
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