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The African mole-rats (Bathyergidae) are a family of rodents highly adapted for life underground. Previous research has shown that chisel-tooth digging mole-rats (which use their incisors to dig burrows) are clearly distinguishable from scratch diggers (which only use the forelimbs to tunnel) on the basis of morphology of the skull, and that the differences are linked to the production of high bite forces and wide gapes. We hypothesized that the skull of a chisel-tooth digging mole-rat would perform better at wider gapes than that of a scratch digging mole-rat during incisor biting. To test this hypothesis, we created finite-element models of the cranium of the scratch digging  Bathyergus suillus  and the chisel-tooth digging  Fukomys mechowii , and loaded them to simulate incisor bites at different gapes. Muscle loads were scaled such that the ratio of force to surface area was the same in both models. We measured three performance variables: overall stress across the cranium, mechanical efficiency of biting and degree of deformation across the skull. The  Fukomys  model had a more efficient incisor bite at all gapes, despite having greater average stress across the skull. In addition, the  Fukomys  model deformed less at wider gapes, whereas the  Bathyergus  model deformed less at narrower gapes. These properties of the cranial morphology of  Fukomys  and  Bathyergus  are congruent with their respective chisel-tooth and scratch digging behaviours and, all other factors being equal, would enable the more efficient production of bite force at wider gapes in  Fukomys . However,  in vivo  measurements of muscle forces and activation patterns are needed to fully understand the complex biomechanics of tooth digging.

The impact of gape on the performance of the skull in chisel-tooth digging and scratch digging mole-rats (Rodentia: Bathyergidae)