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Science fiction network, November 19 (Zhu Xiwei) According to foreign media reports, paleontologists' dental examinations of fossils more than 200 million years ago have shown that a creature called dicynodonts first had real fangs.
According to a professor of biology at the University of Washington, fangs have evolved many times and now have good data on the anatomical changes needed for amphorns to evolve their fangs. For other animals, such as warthogs or walruses, there is no conclusive conclusion.
The diplodonts that existed during the Permian and Triassic periods appear to have been the first group of animals to possess fangs. The term dicynodonts comes from the Greek word for "two canine teeth." The size of these species ranges from today's rats to elephants.
Either way, they are considered the ancestors of today's mammals. To delve into the origins of fangs, the researchers analyzed samples of 19 fossil teeth that represented 10 different species of diplodonts.
One of the original research tasks was to determine exactly what the fangs were made of. Researchers believe that for a tooth to become a fang, it must extend beyond the mouth and continue to grow throughout the animal's lifetime. Unlike most mammalian teeth, the surface of the fangs should be made of soft dentin, not hard enamel. This criterion excludes rat teeth.
There are some dental samples that also do not meet the criteria for fangs because they are coated with tooth enamel instead of dentin. The researchers performed CT scans of the teeth and placed paper-thin samples under a microscope to distinguish between fangs and non-fangs, to understand how the teeth attached to the skull, and to find out how they grew.
Early diplodont species tended to have large teeth rather than true fangs, but the samples showed that over time, multiple species evolved independently and possessed fangs. The researchers also found that the ligaments between the teeth and the jaw adapted to the fangs over time.
Future research will provide more insights, including understanding how diplodonts and other ancient species used their fangs and, more broadly, how they lived.