Abstract
Teeth are more than hard structures for cutting, grinding and/or crushing food. Teeth, living or dead, have much to contribute to the study of ecology, paleontology, functional morphology and systematic. They are the most common mammal body part recovered in paleontological and archaeological assemblages, and one of the easiest tools for assessing mammal evolution. The present day human teeth morphology is a result of mammal evolution, started about 225 millions of years ago. From a simple cone to a complex and diverse pattern of cones and ridges, tooth evolved (in part) as a response to the changes in Earth environment. This paper looks for presenting an overview, of the history of mammal teeth, since its origin to the present day diversity, as long as the importance of teeth for mammals, emphasizing the contribution of paleontology to recent human tooth design, function and nomenclatureReferences
Jernvall J, Jung H-S. Genotype, phenotype and developmental biology of molar tooth characters. Year Book Phys Anthropol 2000; 43: 171-90.
Hillson S. Teeth. Cambridge: The University of Cambridge Press; 1996.
Wood CB, Dumont ER, Crompton AW. New studies of enamel microstructure in Mesozoic mammals: a review of enamel prisms as a mammalian synapomorphy. J Mammal Evol 1999; 6: 177-213.
Crompton AW. The evolution of mammalian mastication. In: Wake DB, Roth G, editors. Complex organismal functions: integration and evolution in vertebrates. New York: John Wiley and Sons; 1989. p.23-40.
Kermack KA, Mussett F, Rigney HW. The lower jaw of Morganucodon. Zool J Linn Soc 1973; 53: 87-175.
Kermack KA, Mussett F, Rigney HW. The skull of Morganucodon. Zool J Linn Soc 1981; 71: 1-158.
Butler PM. The evolution of tooth shape and tooth function in primates. In: Teaford MF, Smith MM, Ferguson MWJ, editors. Development, function and evolution of teeth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2000. p.201-11.
Zhao Z, Weiss KM, Stock DW. Development and evolution of dentition patterns and their genetic basis. In: Teaford MF, Smith MM, Ferguson MWJ, editors. Development, function and evolution of teeth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2000. p.152-72.
Novacek MJ, Rougier GW, Wible JR, McKenna MC, Dashzeveg D, Horovitz I.. Epipubic bones in eutherian mammals from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Nature 1997; 389: 483-6.
Cifelli RL. Counting premolars in early eutherian mammals. Acta Palaeontol Pol 2000; 45: 195-8.
Paula-Couto C. Tratado de paleomastozoologia. Rio de Janeiro: Academia Brasileira de Ciências; 1979.
Simpson GG. A catalogue of the Mesozoic Mammalia in the Geological Department of the British Museum. London: Trustees of the British Museum; 1928.
Luckett WP. An ontogenetic assessment of dental homologies in therian mammals. In: Szalay FS, Novacek, MJ, McKenna, MC, editors. Mammal phylogeny – Mesozoic differentiation, Multituberculates, Monotremes, early therians, and marsupials. New York: Springer-Verlag; 1993. p.182-204.
De Blasé A F, Martin RE. A manual of mammalogy. 2nd ed. Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Publishers; 1981.
Miles AEW. Structural and chemical organization of teeth. New York: Academic Press; 1967.
Ash MM. Wheeler’s dental anatomy, physiology and occlusion. 7th ed. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders; 1993.
Hopson JA. Synapsid evolution and the radiation of noneutherian mammals. In: Spencer RS, editors. Major features of vertebrate evolution. Short Courses in Paleontology, 7, Paleontological Society, University of Tennessee; 1994. p.190-219.
Luo Z-X, Kielan-Jaworowska Z, Cifelli RL. In quest for a phylogeny of Mesozoic mammals. Acta Palaeontol Pol 2002; 47: 1-78.
Cope ED. The origin of the fittest: essay on evolution. New York: D. Appleton and Co; 1887.
Osborn HF. Evolution of Mammalian Molar Teeth to and from the Triangular Type. , New York: The MacMillan Company; 1907.
Lillegraven, JA, Kielan-Jaworowska Z, Clemens WA, editors. Mesozoic mammals. Los Angeles: University of California Press; 1979.
Hershkovitz P. Basic crown tooth pattern and cusp homologies of mammalian teeth. In: Dahlberg AA. Dental Morphology and evolution. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press; 1971. p.95-148.
Patterson B. Early Cretaceous mammals and the evolution of mammalian molar teeth. Fieldiana. Geology 1956; 13: 1-105.
Luo Z-X, Cifelli RL, Kielan-Jaworowska Z. Dual origin of tribosphenic mammals. Nature 2001; 409: 53-7.
Crompton AW. The origin of the tribosphenic molar. Zool J Linn Soc 1971; 50(Suppl 1): 65-87.
Teaford MF. Primate dental functional morphology revisited. In: Teaford MF, Smith MM, Ferguson MWJ, editors. Development, function and evolution of teeth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2000. p.290-304.
Janis CM. Ungulate teeth, diets and climatic changes at the Eocene/Oligocene boundary. Zoology 1997/98; 100: 203- 20.
Ferigolo J. Evolutionary trends of the histological pattern in the teeth of Edentata (Xenarthra). Arch. Oral Biol 1985; 30: 71-82.
Janis CM. An estimation of tooth volume and hypsodonty indices in ungulate mammals, and the correlation of these factors with dietary preference. In: Russell DE, Santoro JP, Sigogneau-Russell D, editors. Teeth revisited. Proceedings of the VIIth. International Symposium on Dental Morphology, Paris. Mémoirs de Musée d’Histoire naturelle, Paris (serie C) 1988; 53: 367-87.
Johanson D, Edgar, B. From Lucy to language. New York: Simon & Schuster editions; 1996.
Damuth J, MacFadden, BJ. Body size in mammalian paleobiology. New York: Cambridge University Press; 1990a.
. Gingerich PD. Size variability of teeth in living mammals and the diagnostic of closely related sympatric fossil species. J Paleontol 1974; 48: 895-903.
Fortelius M. Problems with using fossil teeth to estimate body sizes of extinct mammals. In: Damuth J, MacFadden BJ, editors. Body size in mammalian paleobiology. New York: Cambridge University Press; 1990b. p.207-28.
Damuth J, MacFadden, BJ. Introduction: body size and its estimation. In: Damuth J, MacFadden, BJ, editors.Body size in mammalian paleobiology. New York: Cambridge University Press; 1990b. p.1-10.
Zittel KA. Text book of paleontology. London: Macmillan and Co.; 1925.
Pivetau J. Traité de paléontologie, T. VI Mammifères. Paris: Masson et Cie; 1961.
Romer AS. Vertebrate Paleontology. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press; 1966.
Marshall LG. Systematics of Itaboraian (middle Paleocene) age “oppossum-like” marsupials from the limestone quarry at São José de Itaboraí, Brazil. In: Archer M, editor. Possum and opossums: studies in evolution. Sidney: Surrey Beatty; Sons and the Royal Zoological Society of New South Whales; 1987. p.91-160.
Muizon C, Cifelli RL. The “condylarths” (archaic Ungulata, Mammalia) from the early Palaeocene of Tiupampa (Bolivia): implications on the origin of the South American ungulates. Geodiversitas 2000; 22: 47-150.
Vaughan TA, Ryan JM, Czaplewski NJ. Mammalogy. 4th ed. Orlando: Saunders College Publishing; 2000.
The Brazilian Journal of Oral Sciences uses the Creative Commons license (CC), thus preserving the integrity of the articles in an open access environment.
Downloads
