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Showing results for tags 'wear facets'.
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From the album: Hell Creek / Lance Formations
Not the prettiest tooth, but I very much enjoy fossils like this that demonstrate behavior and tell a story. T. rex and other Tyrannosaurs were unusual among theropods in that they consumed the entire carcass of an animal - bones and all. Most theropod dinosaurs have ziphodont teeth, thin and knife-like, good for cutting muscle from bone. The thick and robust teeth of adult Tyrannosaurs, coupled with their incredible bite force, allowed them to shatter and pulverize bone - even those of the large, formidable herbivores they hunted. Despite the robustness of their teeth, Tyrannosaurs often broke them in the process of biting. It may have been a while before the broken tooth was replaced by a new one, so in the meantime, the broken tooth would continue to accumulate wear. This is one such tooth, a large portion of the tooth was broken off when the animal bit into another dinosaur, and it was still used afterwards for some time before it was replaced. Based on the placement and extension of the carinae to the base of the tooth, and the size, this was an anterior tooth (at the front of the mouth, probably the first dentary tooth) of an adult individual. See Schubert & Ungar (2005) for a discussion on Tyrannosaur tooth wear features (open-access).-
- antemortem wear
- hell creek
- (and 15 more)
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From the album: Hell Creek / Lance Formations
Not the prettiest tooth, but I very much enjoy fossils like this that demonstrate behavior and tell a story. T. rex and other Tyrannosaurs were unusual among theropods in that they consumed the entire carcass of an animal - bones and all. Most theropod dinosaurs have ziphodont teeth, thin and knife-like, good for cutting muscle from bone. The thick and robust teeth of adult Tyrannosaurs, coupled with their incredible bite force, allowed them to shatter and pulverize bone - even those of the large, formidable herbivores they hunted. Despite the robustness of their teeth, Tyrannosaurs often broke them in the process of biting. It may have been a while before the broken tooth was replaced by a new one, so in the meantime, the broken tooth would continue to accumulate wear. This is one such tooth, a large portion of the tooth was broken off when the animal bit into another dinosaur, and it was still used afterwards for some time before it was replaced. Based on the placement and extension of the carinae to the base of the tooth, and the size, this was an anterior tooth (at the front of the mouth, probably the first dentary tooth) of an adult individual. See Schubert & Ungar (2005) for a discussion on Tyrannosaur tooth wear features (open-access).-
- antemortem wear
- hell creek
- (and 15 more)
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Wear facets, spalling and split carinae are typical features you see on Tyrannosaurid teeth that add character and mystery to these teeth. Here are two papers that examine these features. Wear Facets Lambe (1917) noted wear surfaces on the side faces of tyrannosaurid lateral teeth from the Red Deer River deposits of western Canada. He wrote “as the upper teeth closed outside those of the mandible any wear, not on the point, would result from the contact of the inner surface of the upper teeth with the outer surface of the lower ones.” Recent work, has, however, challenged this assertion, suggesting that the shapes, locations, and incidences of tyrannosaurid wear surfaces are not indicative of tooth−tooth contact (Farlow and Brinkman 1994; Molnar 1998; Jacobsen 1996, 2003). Here the paper reevaluates this evidence by examining wearstriations in tyrannosaurid lateral teeth in addition to the shapes and locations of their wear surfaces. Wear facets and enamel spalling in tyrannosaurid dinosaurs Blaine W. Schubert and Peter S. Ungar Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 50 (1), 2005: 93-99 app50-093.pdf Split Carina 11% of the teeth studied in the paper exhibited this trait. Trauma, aberrant tooth replacement, or genetic factors may have led to the development of split carinae. The paper concluded that although not conclusive genetic factors get the most support but additional study is needed. Other factors like nutrition may play a part but the paper points out is not testable. Pay walled Split Carinae on Tyrannosaurid Teeth and Implications of Their Development Gregory M. Erickson Pages 268-274 | Received 14 Jun 1993, Accepted 17 Jan 1994, Published online: 24 Aug 2 https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.1995.10011229 From my collection
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- daspletosaurus
- enamel spalling
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