>I was watching volume 2 of Attenborough's "Life of Mammals" tonight while watching a computer a couple thousand miles away perform some long processes. The first segment was about rodents, which started with a tropical american called an agouti. Turns out these rodents can chomp away on nuts that even Attenborough couldn't bash with a rock; and the way they do it is with laminated teeth, the front is enamel and the rear is dentine. The rear teeth sharpen the front as they eat; and Attenborough noted that this lamination is extremely sharp. And what's more, the teeth grow out as needed. Pretty cool. I don't think the rear teeth grind a microbevel. :)
>The indians of the Pacific Morth West used the front teeth from beavers to do thier wood carving with befor contact with the Whites and thier steel tools. Did some pretty fine and intricate work though imagine they were happy to get a steel knife or chisel ....Todd
>Cool. How big are beaver teeth? I wonder how teeth (laminated only, those totally encased in enamel probably wouldn't work all that well) and metal would compare.
>Lampasas Dispatch Record, Lampasas, TX - Pam Niedermayer, an Austin resident, was arrested today on charges of environmental vandalism, as she completely destroyed a beaver dam on one of the creeks near this town. When captured, she was holding one of the beaver family from the dam and appeared to be attempting to remove its teeth. As the officers restrained her, she began raving about testing the teeth on substances with which the officers were unfamiliar - "wen-gay," "SYP," and "narlig rain," among other mysterious materials. Transcriptions of her later comments included apparent nonsense words such as "shee-no-gee," "moh-coo-may," "el-enn," and others. She also claimed that she needed to report back to the Centralians on her findings. A police psychiatrist, summoned to interview her, pronounced her delusional.
Later, in a more coherent moment, she claimed that she was referring to woodworking practices, but Sgt. Buford Peters, summoned to the holding cell, reported after a ten-minute conversation, "Shoot, I've got every tool Craftsman offers, and I don't know what she was talking about. She claims she can smooth wood with a plane - I've never seen an airplane in a shop. Sanders - that's what you want when you're gonna - um, going to - smooth wood."
Dieter Gonzales, local veterinarian, was able to reset the beaver's teeth after several hours of delicate surgery, and has pronounced the beaver, nicknamed "Ralph" by the office staff, healthy and unscarred by the experience, other than possible psychological damage. "There's not a lot of information about beaver psychology, though, so I'm not sure how I'd know his state of mind. But, while he was coming out of sedation, he chewed the heck out of the legs on my exam table, so I think he'll be fine. I've got to buy a new exam table, though; this one's pretty wobbly now."
Ms. Niedermayer has been held over for further questioning.
>To have a Beaver handy ! My x wife collected mounted animals and I have her stuffed Beaver out in the living room , goes well with my "Adams Family" decor. When we divorced she got the house but hey I got the stuffed animals! Little dusty but As you can see it has rather healthy dental equipment......Todd
>Todd, you never cease to amaze me. His front teeth don't look all that sharp, though, unless that black object under the rear teeth is part of the front teeth.
Did you know that muskrats live with the beavers in their dams? They contribute fresh reeds for rent.
>Beaver teeth used as tools are pretty common in archaeological context for the last 1000 years here in Ohio. Even groundhog teeth were utilized. The attached picture is a pair from an archaeology site that radio carbon dated to 580 AD. They used part of the jaw for the handles. Beaver teeth look very similar only larger, about 1/4" wide. These look like they would have made pretty good nut picks as well as wood carving tools.
>Avocational archaeologist, though I've spent hundreds of hours volunteering on archy projects working for some world renowned archy's and paleoentologists.
Todd's stuffed beaver is a piker compared to what we used to have in Ohio, Castorides Ohioensis. Ohio was sort of world headquarters for these guys (therefor the name) that were about the size of a black bear. The last reliably dated remains of one were found a few miles north of my farm and dated to about 11,000 AD. The picture is a jaw fossil minus the incisor that's probably a Florida river find about 25,000 years old. The incisors would curve outward and downward a couple inches from where my index finger is placed and be about 1/2" or more wide compared to a modern beaver that are little more than a 1/4" wide.
Imagine the chisel or gouge you could make out of one of these.
