I just returned from taking my two small sons to the dentist. By the way, if I had known the costs of something like dentistry before having kids...I don't know if they'd be here now.
This visit marked the first time my four year old had x-rays taken. When we viewed the images, I was struck by how much his mandibular incisors (bottom front teeth) looked like that of a prosimian dental comb. Primates are noted for their lack of dental specialization (to take advantage of varied and flexible food sources), but the dental comb is a classic example of some specialized dentition that does occur in non-human primates.
Despite the adaptive specialization found in dental combs, I still found the common ancestry apparent. My son and a lemur may look very different now, but that x-ray reminded me in a visceral way how they do share grandparents from about 50 million years ago.
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| My oldest son |
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| Human Mandibular Incisors, not my son (disregard B and C) |
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| Lemur Dental Comb (also mandibular incisors, plus modified canines) |
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| Not my son |
I don't think I like where this is going. Is he going to start reminding you of a chimp when he hits puberty?
ReplyDeleteThey both already remind of chimps. Isn't that dental comb awesome? Grooming would be much easier if we all had them.
ReplyDelete