ArticleBiology letters2019
How do morphological sharpness measures relate to puncture performance in viperid snake fangs?
Article in Biology letters, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trade-offs in mechanical performance influence the diversity of fangs, stingers, and spines.Science advances · 2026Article
- The biomechanics of fish skin: assessing puncture resistance to the dynamic predatory mechanism of cone snails.The Journal of experimental biology · 2026Article
- Sharpening our understanding of saber-tooth biomechanics.Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2025Review
- Sharper, straighter, stiffer, stronger: sexually dimorphic bill shape enhances male stabbing performance in the green hermit hummingbird (Phaethornis guy).The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- Biomechanical components of the plant-insect herbivore arms race: a model test in leaf-cutter ants.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2025Article
- Evolutionary morphology of genital spines informed by puncture mechanics.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Being thin-skinned can still reduce damage from dynamic puncture.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2024Article
- Curving expectations: The minimal impact of structural curvature in biological puncture mechanics.Science advances · 2024Article
- Sexually selected weapons can wear out, decreasing their effectiveness in combat.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Is a blunt sword pointless? Tooth wear impacts puncture performance in Tasmanian devil canines.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Article
- Biomechanics of cutting: sharpness, wear sensitivity and the scaling of cutting forces in leaf-cutter ant mandibles.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Investigation of the rate-mediated form-function relationship in biological puncture.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Armed to the teeth: The underestimated diversity in tooth shape in snakes and its relation to feeding behavior and diet.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Modelling biological puncture: a mathematical framework for determining the energetics and scaling.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2022Article
- Predator-Prey Interactions Examined Using Lionfish Spine Puncture Performance.Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2021Article
- How do morphological sharpness measures relate to puncture performance in viperid snake fangs?Biology letters · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
It makes intuitive sense that you need a sharp tool to puncture through a tough material. The typical approach to evaluating sharpness in biological puncturing tools is to treat morphological measurements as a proxy for puncture ability. However, there are multiple approaches to measuring sharpness, and the relative influence of morphology on function remains unclear. Our goal is to determine what aspects of tip morphology have the greatest impact on puncture ability, using ( a) viper fangs and ( b) engineered punches to isolate the effects of different sharpness measures. Our results indicate that tip included angle is the strongest predictor of puncture performance in both viper fangs and engineered punches. For puncture tools with small included angles, sharpness index (based on the radius of curvature) also affects puncture ability. Finally, we found that punches serve as good predictors of fang performance at small angles and sharpness index values.
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