The better to eat you with: morphological disparity and enamel ultrastructure in odontocetes.

ABSTRACT: Variations in the shape and size of teeth have been associated with changes in enamel ultrastructure across odontocetes. Characterizing these features in extinct taxa can elucidate their functional morphology and feeding strategy, while also shedding light into macroevolutionary patterns during the evolutionary history of cetaceans. This study aimed to (1) describe the enamel and dentine ultrastructure of the Early Miocene odontocetes Notocetus vanbenedeni and Phoberodon arctirostris from Patagonia (Argentina) and (2) quantify tooth and enamel ultrastructure morphological disparity among odontocetes. Enamel was predominantly prismatic, thin in the anterior tooth of N. vanbenedeni and P. arctirostris; whilst thick on the posterior tooth of N. vanbenedeni. Together with skull morphology, dat

SUBMITTER: Viglino M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10560669 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature