Ram-Biting: teacher key

Barracudas, grade 10 edition, written for 10th grade. Scientists named a feeding style after the great barracuda. Read how its jaws and teeth work, how a toxin was tracked in its blood, and what is still unknown.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What did the Field Museum scientists name the barracuda's feeding style?
   • Ram-biting (answer)
   • Jaw-locking
   • Reef-sweeping
2. How did the scientists see how the teeth bite?
   • They watched wild fish
   • They placed gelatin blocks in specimens' mouths (answer)
   • They weighed the teeth
3. What did the correlation of 0.86 show?
   • Barracuda grow fast
   • Bite forces are weak
   • Blood and liver ciguatoxin levels rose and fell together (answer)
4. Why is a blood sample useful for the toxin study?
   • It can show if a wild fish carries the toxin, without harming it (answer)
   • It shows how old the fish is
   • It shows where the fish spawns
5. What does palatine describe in: a palatine bone carries large teeth?
   • A fin bone
   • A bone in the back of the jaw (answer)
   • A bone in the tail

Words

• lever: bar that pivots
• specimens: collected animals
• palatine: jaw bone
• ciguatoxin: natural toxin
• spawn: lay eggs