- Titre du projet
- How does dental complexity in bears arise?
- Descriptif du projet
- Most bamboo feeders today are specialists, with high dental complexity, and threatened, like the giant panda. Similarly, the extinct cave bears have highly complex molars that is generally thought to indicate dietary specialization for tough plant mater. The emergence of dental novelties such as high complexity mainly occurs during the patterning stage of development. The interpretation of the variation in crown morphology requires an accurate understanding of its developmental origin. The enamel-dentine junction (EDJ) acts as a precursor for the morphology of the outer enamel surface (OES). So, changes in the OES would indicate modifications in the EDJ morphology and enamel would be the secondary source of morphological complexity. In our study, we found that the high complexity of cave bear molars is not a geometric extrapolation of enamel from the EDJ. Rather, subtle features on EDJ are magnified on the OES, suggesting that the high complexity of cave bear molars is largely accomplished during the enamel matrix secretion phase of tooth formation. The next step is so investigate the giant panda molars and check if their molars show similar developmental pattern.
Travaux réalisés par la plateforme AST-RX
