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Evolution of mammalian dental enamel

by: Moss, Melvin L

Publication date: 1969

Topics: Dental enamel, Mammals, Evolution, Teeth, Teeth, Fossil, Mammals -- Evolution, Teeth -- Evolution

Publisher: New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History

Collection: americanmuseumnaturalhistory; biodiversity

Contributor: American Museum of Natural History Library

Language: English

Rights: http://biodiversitylibrary.org/permissions

Rights-holder: American Museum of Natural History Library

Volume: no. 2360

39 p. : 24 cm

"A polarization microscopic study of evolutionary changes in mammalian dental enamel structure is reported. An extensive series of fossil and Recent teeth were studied. The data show that the enamel of the earliest true mammals was non-prismatic (continuous), that true prismatic (discontinuous) enamel structure first arose in the early Cretaceous (Albian) therians, that in placentals prismatic enamel only gradually became the predominant structural type, and that non-therians did not evolve prismatic structure at any time. A discussion of current theories of amelogenesis and its relationship to the orientation of the c axes of the enamel crystallites suggests that the nature of the evolutionary change in enamel structure is an alteration of the orientation of the ameloblasts in relation to the developing enamel front"--P. 35-36

Title from caption

"February 17, 1969."

Includes bibliographical references (p. 36-39)

Abstract: 'A polarization microscopic study of evolutionary changes in mammalian dental enamel structure is reported. An extensive series of fossil and Recent teeth were studied. The data show that the enamel of the earliest true mammals was non-prismatic (continuous), that true prismatic (discontinuous) enamel structure first arose in the early Cretaceous (Albian) therians, that in placentals prismatic enamel only gradually became the predominant structural type, and that non-therians did not evolve prismatic structure at any time. A discussion of current theories of amelogenesis and its relationship to the orientation of the c axes of the enamel crystallites suggests that the nature of the evolutionary change in enamel structure is an alteration of the orientation of the ameloblasts in relation to the developing enamel front'--P. 35-36.