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Root growth compensates for molar wear in adult goats ( Capra aegagrus hircus )
Author(s) -
Ackermans Nicole L.,
Clauss Marcus,
Winkler Daniela E.,
SchulzKornas Ellen,
Kaiser Thomas M.,
Müller Dennis W. H.,
Kircher Patrick R.,
Hummel Jürgen,
Hatt JeanMichel
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of experimental zoology part a: ecological and integrative physiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.834
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 2471-5646
pISSN - 2471-5638
DOI - 10.1002/jez.2248
Subject(s) - molar , crown (dentistry) , cementum , tooth wear , biology , capra hircus , volume (thermodynamics) , zoology , dentistry , medicine , dentin , paleontology , physics , quantum mechanics
Abstract One reason for the mammalian clade’s success is the evolutionary diversity of their teeth. In herbivores, this is represented by high‐crowned teeth evolved to compensate for wear caused by dietary abrasives like phytoliths and grit. Exactly how dietary abrasives wear teeth is still not understood completely. We fed four different pelleted diets of increasing abrasiveness (L: Lucerne; G: grass; GR: grass and rice husks; GRS: grass, rice husks, and sand) to four groups of a total of 28 adult goats, all with completely erupted third molars, over a six‐month period. Tooth morphology was captured by medical computed tomography scans at the beginning and end of the controlled feeding experiment, and separation lines between the crown and root segments were defined in the upper right second molar (M2), to gauge absolute wear. Using bootstrapping, significant differences in volume loss between diets L/G and GR/GRS were detected. A small but nevertheless consistent volume gain was noted in the roots, and there was a significant, positive correlation between crown volume loss and root volume gain. This growth could possibly be attributed to the well‐known process of cementum deposition and its relation with a putative feedback mechanism, in place to attenuate wear caused by abrasive diets.