How many teeth do crabeater seals have?
Crabeater seals have 32 teeth - 8 inscisors, 4 canines and 20
post-canine teeth. The latter cannot be subdivided into molars and
premolars due to the specialised nature of the crabeater's teeth.
They are multi-cusped with gaps between each cusp and they
interlock with the teeth on the opposing jaw to form a filter. This
is used to filter out krill from the seawater - a more efficient
method than grabbing the krill one at a time. Krill are their main
prey; they do not eat crabs.