title: Physics of chewing in terrestrial mammals.
abstract: Previous studies on chewing frequency across animal species have focused on finding a single universal scaling law. Controversy between the different models has been aroused without elucidating the variations in chewing frequency. In the present study we show that vigorous chewing is limited by the maximum force of muscle, so that the upper chewing frequency scales as the -1/3 power of body mass for large animals and as a constant frequency for small animals. On the other hand, gentle chewing to mix food uniformly without excess of saliva describes the lower limit of chewing frequency, scaling approximately as the -1/6 power of body mass. These physical constraints frame the -1/4 power law classically inferred from allometry of animal metabolic rates. All of our experimental data stay within these physical boundaries over six orders of magnitude of body mass regardless of food types.
authors.affiliation: Emergent Complexity in Physical Systems Laboratory (ECPS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.|John A, Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Virot
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.
authors.forename: Grace
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: LadHyX, CNRS UMR 7646, École Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau, France.|PMMH, CNRS UMR 7636, ESPCI, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Clanet
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.|Center for Soft Matter and Biological Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.
authors.forename: Sunghwan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jung
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle / Q000502:physiology*; D006736:Horses / Q000502:physiology*; D008409:Mastication; D008954:Models, Biological; D055585:Physical Phenomena; D012756:Sheep / Q000502:physiology*