ANT333Y1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Paracone, Dentin, Deciduous Teeth
Document Summary
Heterodonty differently shaped teeth plesiomorphic mammalian trait. All primate have deciduous teeth and then permanent teeth. Some strepsirhine species have lost some or all of their incisors in the maxilla due to adaptations: e. g, the aye-aye. Some strepsirhines have a big gap (diastema) between the two centeral incisors of the upper jaw. To accommodate large canines, there is a diastema behind the maxillary incisors and the mandibular canines. In most species, canines are just for show. All catarrhines have two premolars on either side of the upper or lower jaw. Platyrrhines and strepsirhines all have three premolars. Ancestral primate had four premolars; evolutionarily, a reduction in teeth has been seen. Strepsirhines have more triangular-shaped molar teeth, especially in the upper jaw. Monkeys have more square-shaped molars with four cusps. Asian monkeys have evolved to have pairs of cusps bilophodonty (+4 pattern) pairs are connected by transverse ridges.
