Ozzy Osbourne Needed Major Jaw Strength to Bite Off Bat's Head, Expert Says

Sink your teeth into this -- Ozzy Osbourne’s infamous bat-biting moment just got a jaw-dropping twist ... 'cause TMZ’s learned it took some fang-tastic bite power to rip that poor critter’s head clean off.

Kathryn Slater -- marketing & PR queen at Bat Conservation International in Austin -- tells TMZ that Ozzy likely worked his jaw strength over time to chomp through a bat’s muscle, tissue, and bone. But in the heat of the moment -- fueled by pure rockstar adrenaline -- Ozzy made it look freakishly easy.

Ozzy’s boundary-pushing stage stunt back in '82 has long been etched in rock ’n’ roll infamy -- and while the Prince of Darkness rushed straight to the hospital for a rabies shot, Kathryn is quick to clear up the myth ... most bats aren’t rabid, so Ozzy probably didn’t need to freak out over a fang-filled encore.

She added that, in general, bats are just minding their own business and rarely bother humans -- and fun fact, out of nearly 1,500 bat species, only three are actually vampire bats. Anddddd FYI, they only sip a tiny bit of blood from livestock, not humans.

BTW, Ozzy recreated the moment for a 1998 episode of VH1's "Behind the Music" -- any footage from the original bats**t incident is nowhere to be found.