Marsupial has the deadliest bite
The hyena's reputation as having the world's most vicious bite is a myth, says an international team of researchers.
For its bodyweight, the title goes to Australia's Tasmanian devil, a marsupial that has a bite as strong as a dog three times its weight.
The researchers studied the skulls of 39 predators from around the world, some from extinct animals, to work out the force of their bites.
They estimated the size of their jaw-closing muscles by measuring the size of the space between the skull and the cheek bone the muscle would have slotted through.
The more powerful a predator's bite, the bigger the prey it can grab around the throat and suffocate to death, says Wroe.
Remarkably, in some cases the researchers found some smaller animals had a much bigger bite force than bigger ones.
"Somewhat surprisingly, marsupials, pound for pound, were biting far above their weight," says Wroe.
"Among the living species, the Tasmanian devil took the prize for biggest biter relative to its body size."
But the all-time biggest biter was the extinct Australian marsupial lion (Thylacoleo carnifex), which Wroe says had jaws nearly as powerful as those of a massive lion three times as heavy.
Wroe says that Africa's spotted, or laughing, hyena is generally believed to have the most powerful bite size for its body mass.
"It's often been cited both in print and TV," he says. "But when you go into it, you find no one has actually demonstrated it. It's just been assumed."
He warns this doesn't mean people can go waving their hands in hyena faces.
"They still have darned powerful jaws but relative to their body mass, they're not spectacularly big biters."
He says quite a few cats and dogs have bigger bites for their size, and a lot of marsupials.
Another surprise finding was the extinct North American big game hunter known as the sabre cat or sabre tooth tiger (Smilodon fatalis) did not have especially powerful jaws for its size. Its relative bite was weaker than the hyena's.
Devils' bite could help fight foxes
Wroe says finding out that the endangered Tasmanian devil has the world's deadliest bite supports the idea that healthy specimens could be re-introduced to the Australian mainland to help cull feral fox and cat populations.
"Our findings support the idea that in one-on-one interactions devils would prevail over foxes," he says, adding this would first have to be tested on an island or enclosed area.