Snout

The muzzle generally referred to in many vertebrates trained, projecting part of the face below the eyes. It also includes the area around the mouth with the jaw and in mammals cheeks. This area of the skull is called the rostrum. If this area is surrounded by Horn, is a beak ( as in birds, turtles or the platypus ). One in the area of ​​muscular snout elongated nose is called a trunk.

In a narrower sense, the term muzzle very often referred to only the mouth with the oral cavity. In this manner it is used mainly in carnivores, herbivores at people speak from the mouth. At the upper part of the snout, the nose continues, so the nostrils are generally located at the front muzzle end.

Since the area of the snout primarily of food intake and serves at the same time represents the foremost part of the head, he has a series of sensory organs. So does the nose to odors; the tongue lying in the muzzle is equipped with taste buds. In various reptiles also located Odor Perception in the palate the Jacobson organ, and many mammals have developed a nasal mirror ( Rhinarium ). In addition, depending on the considered group of animals, mechanoreceptors ( in many mammals with specially trained tactile hairs, the vibrissae ) and thermal receptors.

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