gomphothere teeth

Here's a pair of Chinese gomphothere teeth. There are no labels with these teeth, so I am relying on experience to call them Chinese gomphotheres, Sinomastodon sp.

These teeth appear to be a different-sides pair of teeth, almost certainly from two different animals. Though they are roughly the same size, the two teeth have different appearances. The gold-color tooth - a fully-developed tooth - has a glossy finish, hard and glass-like.

Compare the first tooth with the white tooth, which is an incomplete enamel cap . . . that is, this little elephant died before the tooth enamel was completely laid down. The surface is dull, without the glassy polish of a fully-developed tooth. The contours of the enamel cap are more stark than those of the fully-developed tooth.

With a little more time, the enamel cap would have developed to look like the gold-color tooth in the image, including the hard and glass-like outer cover.

"In contrast to dentin, the enamel layer...increases in thickness from the basal membrane outward: the last formed enamel layer lies outermost. The outer cover is formed by the enamel surface membrane (cuticula dentis, Nasmyth's membrane). [This outer cover] is important for the protection of the teeth because of its resistance to chemical agents, especially acids."

from: Comparative Odontology, Bernhard Peyer

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