ISSUE: #04 MARCH 2021
- Why Is It Dark at Night?
- Give a Counterexample
- See the Forest beyond the Trees
- A Combination Of Properties
- How The Rainforests Are Drying Out?
- Geographic Mysteries And Their Scientific Explanations
- A Cockroach Life
- Ubiquitous Teeth
- How Evidence-Based Medicine Works
- How to build a skyscraper
- BOOKS: FROM AN IDEA OF BOOKSHELF
- How Does a Black Box Work?
- How to Become a Space Tourist
- You Reap What You Sow: Why Do We Assume the World Is Fair?
Topic Last Updated on 08-04-2024
Roots of the Tooth
From a scientific point of view, teeth are derived from skeletal formations in the head. They were once protuberances on the skin, like the plates that covered the jaws of primitive vertebrates. The presence of these bumps and bulges made the jaws effective tools for obtaining and chewing food. Given such an advantage, Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals—even humans) became the dominant form of vertebrate on the planet. Jawless creatures (Agnatha) have to filter water or use growths on their “tongues” to eat their prey. They don’t have real teeth.
The various parts of a tooth don’t all arise from the same place. During embryonic development, teeth begin to form from the ectoderm — the same layer as the body’s skin and nervous system. The ectoderm forms protrusions, through which the cells from the mesoderm (another layer of cells found in the embryo) creep up.
At first, these rudimentary teeth can all be merged into a single plate along the edge of the jaw. This is how it works in pigs, whom scientists have carefully studied in their research on the formation of teeth.
