With a Grin – The World of Mammalian Teeth
Food is an absolute necessity. Indeed, we all have to eat to survive. By eating, animals obtain the energy they need to survive from other living organisms. Some animals obtain this energy from eating plants and some by eating other animals. Teeth are important tools for animal survival, as they are the frontline in obtaining energy from the digestive system.
Teeth are the primary tools used by animals to process food, transforming it into a more suitable form for digestion and absorption by the digestive tract. The precise food processing mechanisms are reflected in the teeth of mammals. Mammalian teeth have developed into many forms to allow for the ingestion of many types of foods. For example, the canines of carnivorous mammals can pierce, as well as pull and tear apart, prey. The upper and lower molars are like scissors, efficiently cutting up food. Herbivorous mammals have wide flat molars with connected crowns. The raised ridges along their surface and left to right movement when chewing are used to grind fiber-rich leaves, stems, fruits, and seeds. Omnivorous mammals have blunter canines and raised knob-like molars, which can be used to pulverize and break up food.
In this online exhibition, entitled With a Grin – The World of Mammalian Teeth, you can view precious skull fossils of various mammalian species, as well as their tooth morphologies up close. From the relationships between the distinctive shapes of the teeth and feeding habits, we gain insight into how the teeth of carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores are used to pierce, cut, and grind food. In understanding the evolutionary process, important mammalian fossils are those of the carnivorous Megantereon (saber-toothed cat), cave lion, and hyena; the herbivorous three-toed equine, rhinocerotid, Samotherium (giraffe ancestor), Brontotherium, mastodon, and artiodactyl; and the omnivorous cave bear, Kubanochoerus, and wild boar. All of them are presented to you due to the advent of the far-reaching Internet.
