AI Article Synopsis
- Sirenians, like manatees, have adapted their mouth structures for grazing in shallow waters, leading to changes in tooth structure and function, particularly noted in the extinct Steller's sea cow, which had no teeth.
- Researchers used μ-CT scans to study the skulls of sirenians and examined how their nerve systems adapted to these changes, focusing on tooth reduction and the development of keratinized pads in place of teeth.
- Their findings showed that while Steller's sea cow was toothless, it still retained some dental development features, highlighting the evolutionary significance of tooth innervation and its parallels in other animals.
Article Abstract
Sirenians are a well-known example of morphological adaptation to a shallow-water grazing diet characterized by a modified feeding apparatus and orofacial morphology. Such adaptations were accompanied by an anterior tooth reduction associated with the development of keratinized pads, the evolution of which remains elusive. Among sirenians, the recently extinct Steller's sea cow represents a special case for being completely toothless. Here, we used μ-CT scans of sirenian crania to understand how motor-sensor systems associated with tooth innervation responded to innovations such as keratinized pads and continuous dental replacement. In addition, we surveyed nine genes associated with dental reduction for signatures of loss of function. Our results reveal how patterns of innervation changed with modifications of the dental formula, especially continuous replacement in manatees. Both our morphological and genomic data show that dental development was not completely lost in the edentulous Steller's sea cows. By tracing the phylogenetic history of tooth innervation, we illustrate the role of development in promoting the innervation of keratinized pads, similar to the secondary use of dental canals for innervating neomorphic keratinized structures in other tetrapod groups.
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| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10685118 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.1932 | DOI Listing |
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