Tooth features in Tyrannosaurids

[Troodon]

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

 

 

 

 

[-Andy-]

3 rows of serrations? Gotta check all my teeth again!