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Independent evolutionary origins of vertebrate dentitions

Date:
May 6, 2021
Source:
University of Bristol
Summary:
The origins of a pretty smile have long been sought in the fearsome jaws of living sharks which have been considered living fossils reflecting the ancestral condition for vertebrate tooth development and inference of its evolution. However, this view ignores real fossils which more accurately reflect the nature of ancient ancestors.
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The origins of a pretty smile have long been sought in the fearsome jaws of living sharks which have been considered living fossils reflecting the ancestral condition for vertebrate tooth development and inference of its evolution. However, this view ignores real fossils which more accurately reflect the nature of ancient ancestors.

New research led by the University of Bristol and the Naturalis Biodiversity Center published inNature Ecology and Evolutionreveals that the dentitions of living shark relatives are entirely unrepresentative of the last shared ancestor of jawed vertebrates.

The study reveals that while teeth evolved once, complex dentitions have been gained and lost many times in evolutionary history and tooth replacement in living sharks is not the best model in the search for therapeutic solutions to human dental pathologies.

Lead author Martin Rücklin from Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, The Netherlands said: "We used high energy x-rays at the TOMCAT beamline of the Swiss Light Source at the Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland, to study tooth and jaw structure and development among shark ancestors. These ischnacanthid acanthodians possessed marginal dentitions composed of multiple, successional tooth rows, that are quite unlike the tooth whorls that occur in front of the jaw in acanthodians and across the jaws of crown-chondrichthyans."

Co-author Professor Philip Donoghue from the University of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences said: "Dentitions of vertebrates are characterized by an organised arrangement to enable occlusion and efficient feeding over the lifetime of an animal. This organisation and pattering of teeth is thought to originate in a universal development mechanism, the dental lamina, seen in sharks. The condition we see in the successional tooth rows cannot be explained by this mechanism."

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Materialsprovided byUniversity of Bristol.注意:内容可能被编辑风格d length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Martin Rücklin, Benedict King, John A. Cunningham, Zerina Johanson, Federica Marone, Philip C. J. Donoghue.Acanthodian dental development and the origin of gnathostome dentitions.Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2021; DOI:10.1038/s41559-021-01458-4

Cite This Page:

University of Bristol. "Independent evolutionary origins of vertebrate dentitions." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 6 May 2021. .
University of Bristol. (2021, May 6). Independent evolutionary origins of vertebrate dentitions.ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 14, 2023 from www.koonmotors.com/releases/2021/05/210506125812.htm
University of Bristol. "Independent evolutionary origins of vertebrate dentitions." ScienceDaily. www.koonmotors.com/releases/2021/05/210506125812.htm (accessed July 14, 2023).

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