Continuous dental replacement in a hyper-chisel tooth digging rodent.

ABSTRACT: Contrary to their reptilian ancestors, which had numerous dental generations, mammals are known to usually develop only two generations of teeth. However, a few mammal species have acquired the ability to continuously replace their dentition by the constant addition of supernumerary teeth moving secondarily toward the front of the jaw. The resulting treadmill-like replacement is thus horizontal, and differs completely from the vertical dental succession of other mammals and their extinct relatives. Despite the developmental implications and prospects regarding the origin of supernumerary teeth, this striking innovation remains poorly documented. Here we report another case of continuous dental replacement in an African rodent, Heliophobius argenteocinereus, which combines this dental syste

SUBMITTER: Rodrigues HG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3198356 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature