dolphin here on the right as well as the armadillos
armadillos
the armadillos are in the order
singulata that said the majority of
mammals exhibit
heterodontentition that is to say
different types of teeth that vary in
their morphology their shape as well as
their jobs so these teeth include the
incisors at the anterior of the upper
and lower jaw denoted in Blue on this
image of a wolf skull the single pair of
canines and green
the premolars which are in purple on
this picture and then lastly we have the
molars in light blue so let's take a
moment and focus on each of those types
of teeth incisors typically have a
single root and are most often used to
snip in the grazers and the browsers to
tear in the carnivores and then to gnaw
in the rodents like this capybara here
which is the largest rodent in the world
gnawing incisors and the rodents and the
Lego morphs the rabbits and the hairs
that said like so many structures in
nature incisors can be highly modified
to do specialized tasks so consider the
incisors of the vampire bat which are
adapted for piercing flesh so that it
can lap up the blood the incisors those
are incisors of elephants which are used
for digging as well as stripping bark
off of trees
uh and then lastly the incisor here on
the Narwhal which is most likely used uh
to attract mates and to compete with
rivals in sexual selection
please note that there is never more
than one pair of canines in the upper
and lower jaw on any modern mammal so
like most of the incisors the canines
are unicuspid they just have one point
one protrusion
incisors are single rooted they're
especially pronounced in the Carnivora
like you can clearly see here in this
tiger for piercing and tearing prey
uh let's see canines comprise the tusks
in walruses and the sewer day the pig
family surprisingly we even see
elongated canines in some deer like the
musk deer of Southeast Asia as well as
the Chinese water deer and the Yangtze
Basin and Korea moving on to the first
type of cheek teeth the premolars the
premolars are immediately posterior of
the canines
so admittedly it can be kind of tricky
distinguishing between the premolars and
the molars here you can see in the horse
they look a lot alike so in general the
premolars are going to be smaller than
the molars and they most often have two
Roots whereas molars most often are
going to have three
however the best defining characteristic
for distinguishing between premolars and
molars is that the premolars are going
to have deciduous
counterparts there are milk teeth of the
premolars so those baby teeth premolars
are going to come in and then be
replaced by adult premolars whereas the
molars there are no deciduous
counterparts and finally we have the
multi-cuspid molars which again unlike
the premolars have no deciduous counterparts
counterparts
premolars and molars are collectively
deemed the cheek teeth or the molariform
teeth the function of these large teeth
is for grinding food this grinding this
mechanical digestion is very important
to maximize nutrient absorption from foods
foods
of note here Crown height is going to
vary considerably in the mammals
herbivores which consume highly abrasive
forage that contains lots of silica so
it's really hard on the teeth like this
horse they are going to have very high
crowns they're called hexadant so
hippsadont means High crowned and you
can see that those High crowns are
deeply embedded in the horse's jaw
over here in the omnivores the crown is
considerably smaller this is referred to
as brachiodont dentition further the
cusp patterns are quite variable on the
occlusal or the chewing surfaces of
cheek teeth so brachiodont remember
brachiodont has the low Crown
brachiodont cheek teeth are most often bunodont
bunodont
which means they have rounded cusps for
crushing and grinding like we see in the
monkeys and the pigs
alternatively the cusp may form this
continuous Ridge or loaf such as occurs
in elephants in a pattern termed lopedant
lopedant
and then finally if the lobes are
isolated and Crescent shaped as in deer
like this elk or Wapiti we deem it
selenodont and I'm going to show you
some skulls here with all of these cusp
patterns in just a moment the carnassial
teeth are highly specialized teeth in
the order Carnivora they're the last
upper premolar and the first lower molar
and together those carnassial teeth are
used for shearing meat like you see here
in this African lion
so a quick look at the carnassial teeth
and a number of carnivore families a
these are the carnacials on an ersid A Bear
Bear
B is the felids the cat family like this lion
lion
C is the Cadence of course dogs wolves
coyotes and then lastly on the bottom we
have the mustelid family this is the
weasel family with Wolverine Badgers and otters
otters
another term you should be familiar with
the diastema the diastema is a gap in
the tooth row between the incisors and
the molars the cheek teeth as exhibited
by this white-tailed deer as well as in
the rodents like this gray squirrel here
again this is the diastema this Gap in
the tooth row important to note these
teeth have been lost over evolutionary
time so the rodents have no canines
they've lost those
most mammals are diphyodont meaning they
have two sets of teeth during their
lifetime dye of course means two they
have their deciduous or milk teeth as
well as their permanent adult teeth the
exception is shrews shrews only have
adult teeth but that said they do in
fact have deciduous teeth they're just
reabsorbed during fetal development so
here we can see an x-ray of a human and
you can see these permanent teeth
pushing out the milk teeth the deciduous
teeth there's a canine here and a
premolar interestingly in the elephants
and the manatees the adult teeth are
going to move from the posterior of the
jaw they're going to move horizontally
and the adult teeth are going to replace
the cheek teeth that wear away and fall
out okay so let's take a few minutes and
let me walk you through uh Dental
formula a dental formula is just a
shorthand description of the total
number and position of the teeth some
important points to start number one
dental formula are always given in this order
order
incisors first
than canines then premolars and finally
molars they're always given from front
to back from anterior to posterior
number two Dental formula are only given
for one side of the mouth okay because
mammals are bilaterally symmetric so
what's going on on this side of the
mouth is going to be the exact same
number that's going on on this side of
the mouth
the number three the upper jaw is always
on top or to the left of the backslash
and the lower jaw is always beneath okay
so here we have a wolf a canis lupus and
you can see three incisors on top three
three incisors down below three canines
one and one there's always just one pair
of canines if they're there then we have
four one two three four premolars on top
one two three four premolars on bottom
two molars on top and then three molars
on the bottom okay uh one two two is
there and three okay so that's a total
of 42 teeth on the wolf alright so I
don't have a wolf but I do have its
close cousin the coyote okay
okay
um so uh coyotes have the same Dental
formula as wolves they have 42 total
teeth same exact uh positioning in fact
all canons do they all have the same
Dental formula so we're going to start
with the upper jaw and I'm going to try
and get you a nice close look here
um we are supposed to have six incisors
across the front here but we're actually
missing one okay so if we have six total
we're only going to do one side so one
side means that we have three endcisors
we just have the one canine the large
pointy canine we have one two three four
premolars this rather large tooth is
actually a premolar and then I'm going
to turn it just like this and you can
see that there are one and two molars
okay the lower jaw is going to vary slightly
slightly
so we are again going to have three
incisors on the one side uh the canine
and then we're going to have one two
three four premolars and then we
actually have three molars one
two and three hopefully you can see
those okay lastly if I can get this jaw
to articulate again
there we go I want to show you the
carnassial teeth okay remember the
carnassial teeth that last premolar on
the top
um there we go the last premolar on the
top and the first uh molar on the bottom
right here and right here and if you can
just see that it's got this shearing
capacity right so it's going to allow it
to just sheer meat and the carnivores
have the carnassial teeth next up we
have a bobcat skull
and a bobcat skull is going to have a
dental formula of three incisors on top
three incisors below
one canine on top
and one canine below
and then it's going to have uh two
premolars on top one two premolars two
premolars on the bottom and then it's
got and I know it's kind of hard to see
it's got one tiny little molar up top
and then it's got a molar down below so
the Bobcat has a total of 28 total teeth
I want to show you those carnassial
teeth again okay that shearing action
from the carnassial teeth
but most importantly what I want to show
you on this Bobcat is I want you to
check out the very short Rostrum the
Rostrum right here in the anterior part
of the skull with the nasal cavity as
well as the very short lower jaw at
least relative to a black bear
okay so here's a black bear and I'm
gonna try to get them both in the camera
for you
okay so you can see that relative to a
black bear an omnivore this highly
carnivorous cat has a much shorter
Rostrum and lower jaw
okay this cat has a much greater bite
force pound per pound than either the
bear family the ursids or the canaans
this is the most carnivorous of the
carnivores why does it have such great
bite force well uh if you remember your
unit on simple machines from way back
probably in middle school this lower jaw
right here represents a third class
lever a third class lever has the
fulcrum on the end so the fulcrum is
here where the lower jaw articulates
with the skull
the effort is provided by the masseter
muscle the masseter muscle is going to
go through the zygomatic Arch and
connect to the lower jaw and then most
importantly the load the load is the
bite force okay this cat has a very
great uh bite force because the load is
closer to the fulcrum than this black
bear this is also a third class lever
okay but here you can see that the lever
the length of the lever arm is
considerably longer okay so the lower
jaw a third class lever the shorter the
jaw the greater the bite force that said
don't let this omnivore label fool you
we'll come back to this in module six
but one thing I learned 20 years years
ago now putting radio callers on newborn
cat felt is that black bears and
especially grizzly bears are very
effective Predators at hunting and
killing neonatal elk newborn calf elk
all right I've got two more omnivores
for you first I have a primate I have a chimpanzee
and then I have a collared peccary
which you may know as the javelina
a couple of things I want to point out
number one on the javelina
the javelina is brachiodont
brachiodont
brachiodont so what that means is it has
low low Crown Heights
the second thing that I want to point
out is the occlusal surface of a
brachiodont here is the lower jaw
from the uh chimpanzee and so this is
what we call
bunodont occlusal surfaces so if you
look really closely you can see those
rounded cusps
on the cheek teeth
contrast that with a zebra and the zebra
has hipsodont dentition or high crowned
cheek teeth
further the zebra is going to have
selenodont occlusial surfaces so those
are those Crescent shaped
crescent-shaped cusps okay that are not
continuous this is selenodont
dentition a selenodont cusp pattern
finally I wanted you to note these incisors
incisors
for cropping grasses the zebra and just
two more really quick a couple more
specimens I've collected over the years
uh first I wanted to show you this
Russian boar and the reason why I wanted
to show you this dude is because of
these modified canines
so the canines are these gnarly tusks on
the Russian boar and then I've already
shown you the beaver you remember the
beaver it's a small Beaver it's got the
orange enamel on the incisor the dentine
which is going to wear away uh much more
quickly creating this beveled Edge but
what I wanted to really show you was the
diastema that Gap in the tooth row all
right so I'd like to end with a little
bit of practice for you so I'm going to
give you about 30 seconds grab your pens
grab your journals your notebooks and I
want you to practice scrawling out the
dental formula for the white-tailed deer
notice that the teeth in the lower and
the upper jaw are labeled with letters
and numbers so it should be pretty easy
so I'll give you just a few seconds on that
drum roll the answer is
on the top
we have no incisors so a zero goes on
top on the bottom we have three incisors
we have no canine on top on the bottom
we do have one tiny little canine there
labeled c one
on the top we have one two three
premolars and one two three molars on
the bottom three premolars and three
molars three premolars uh and three
molars so that's a total of 32 teeth to
get the total of course you're going to
sum those and multiply by two because
we're just doing one side of the jaw if
you're not you're going to get some more
practice with both skull identification
and dental formula on your assignment
this week so you're going to check out
this beautiful website entitled teeth
and 4D it's Dr Evans Lab from Monash
University and it's got these amazing
digital models that allow you to
manipulate them in any direction that
you want they're in 4D because they're moving
moving
um so it's going to be really helpful
for you in uh working on Dental formula
it's the next best thing to actually
holding the skull in your hands
and as always I'll end with references I
really hope you find these videos
helpful please reach out if you have any
questions and take care I'll see you
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