Heterodont
Animals which have more than a single tooth morphology
In anatomy, a heterodont (from Greek, meaning 'different teeth') is an animal which possesses more than a single tooth morphology and/or exhibit considerable size variation within the tooth row. Human dentition is heterodont and diphyodont as an example. Members of the Synapsida (including mammals) generally possess incisors, canines ("dogteeth"), premolars, and molars. The presence of heterodont dentition is evidence of some degree of feeding and or hunting specialization in a species. In contrast, homodont or isodont dentition refers to a set of teeth that possess the same tooth morphology.
In invertebrates, the term heterodont refers to a condition where teeth of differing sizes occur in the hinge plate, a part of the Bivalvia.
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This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Heterodont”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Tooth shape changes within the jaw (heterodont - homodont).jpg by From Zahradnicek, Oldrich, Marcela Buchtova, Hana Dosedelova, and Abigail Saffron Tucker., CC-BY-3.0
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