Digestive efficiency is one of those reptile misconceptions that makes the rounds every now and again. It’s not as pervasive as the “lack of aerobic capacity” or “inability to maintain body temperature” arguments, but there is still a general view in many scientific circles (*cough* paleontology *cough*) that reptiles are less efficient at digesting food than similar sized mammals and birds. Much of this boils down to the old endothermocentric fallacy that the high costs associated with obligate endothermy should somehow translate to greater benefits everywhere else (Greenberg 1980).
Well that, and the fact that reptile chewing is very different from mammalian chewing.
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