Evolution of mammalian dental enamel. American Museum novitates ; no. 2360
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Abstract
"A polarization microscopic study of evolutionary changes in mammalian dental enamel structure is reported. An extensive series of fossil and Recent teeth were studied. The data show that the enamel of the earliest true mammals was non-prismatic (continuous), that true prismatic (discontinuous) enamel structure first arose in the early Cretaceous (Albian) therians, that in placentals prismatic enamel only gradually became the predominant structural type, and that non-therians did not evolve prismatic structure at any time. A discussion of current theories of amelogenesis and its relationship to the orientation of the c axes of the enamel crystallites suggests that the nature of the evolutionary change in enamel structure is an alteration of the orientation of the ameloblasts in relation to the developing enamel front"--P. 35-36.
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Includes bibliographical references (p. 36-39).