Bite force–gape curves and passive tension costs in Macaca mulatta
Stephanie L Canington, Carla Escabi, Michael L Platt, Timothy A Machado, Jose Iriarte-Diaz, Myra F Laird · 2026
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Description
Stephanie Canington and co-authors measure in 2026 how much of a monkey's bite comes for free from stretched jaw tissues. Passive tension in jaw muscles is thought to guard the jaw joint by capping how wide the mouth opens. Yet it had been measured in single muscles of only two non primate mammals, never at the teeth of a primate.
The team recorded passive bite force in eight adult rhesus macaques at front and back teeth across many openings, and active force in two with a custom gauge. Passive force grew with opening and ran larger at the back teeth. But measured against active bite, it stayed small at the tooth surface. Models of muscle behavior agreed: passive tension barely limits gape in these monkeys. Their jaw muscles seem unusually stretchy, perhaps tuned for wide gape behavior. The data are the first of their kind in primates.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Stephanie L Canington, Carla Escabi, Michael L Platt, Timothy A Machado, Jose Iriarte-Diaz, Myra F Laird |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 49 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |