Research overview: jaw adductor muscles and the temporalis-masseter balance in cats

The force of a cat bite comes from its jaw-closing muscles, chiefly the temporalis and masseter, and this overview reviews their arrangement and relative emphasis. In cats the temporalis is strongly developed, anchored on prominent crests of the skull, favouring forceful closure at the canines, while the muscle architecture restricts side-to-side movement in keeping with a slicing rather than grinding chewer. Researchers reconstruct muscle forces from attachment areas, fibre architecture, and finite-element and lever models. Why it matters: the muscle layout explains the prominent sagittal crests of big cats, links cranial bony landmarks to bite performance, and shows how the whole skull, from crest to tooth, is organised around delivering and withstanding a powerful, stabbing bite.