[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Subject Index][Author Index]

[dinosaur] Spinosaurid teeth histology from Morocco show rapid tooth replacement rates (free pdf)



Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com

A new paper with free pdf:

Free pdf:

Nicola S. Heckeberg and Oliver W. M. Rauhut (2020)
Histology of spinosaurid dinosaur teeth from the Albian-Cenomanian of Morocco: Implications for tooth replacement and ecology.
Palaeontologia Electronica, 23(3):a48
doi: https://doi.org/10.26879/1041
https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2020/3170-histology-of-spinosaurid-teeth

Free pdf:
https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/pdfs/1041.pdf



High numbers of spinosaurid teeth found in Morocco suggest that this clade was very abundant during the "Mid-""Cretaceous in northern Africa. Several reasons have been proposed to account for this abundance of spinosaur teeth, from sampling biases to ecology. However, the number of teeth in the fossil record also depends strongly on the tooth replacement rate. So far, little is known about the tooth formation time and replacement rates in spinosaurids. Here, we analysed the histology of several spinosaur teeth to estimate tooth formation time and replacement rates, using the count of lines of von Ebner, the daily formed incremental lines in the dentine of the teeth. Line counts indicated a maximum tooth formation time of 271 days, and replacement rates were predicted to be between 59 and 68 days. These rates are faster than in other large theropods for which data are known, and, together with the rather high number of teeth in a spinosaurid dentition, might thus help to explain the abundance of spinosaur teeth in the "Mid-"Cretaceous of northern Africa.


Virus-free. www.avg.com