CAUSAL FACTORS IN SHORTENING TOOTH SERIES WITH AGE

¹ Department of Biology, University of Newark

The following factors may cooperate in producing the shortening of the tooth row and its concomitants described or referred to in this paper: 1. Wear between erupting teeth and adjoining, already erupted teeth. 2. Crown wear between upper and lower teeth, removing over-hanging portions of the crown, when such exist, which would, if no other factor were operative, merely widen the interdental spaces. 3. Interstitial wear between teeth in contact, due to the play between root and alveolus permitted by the elastic periodontal membrane. 4. Slow shifts in position of the teeth in the jaws, due to bone resorption and deposition in the alveoli, the observed tendency being to maintain continuous contact within the functional series.

These processes were carried to an extreme degree in the extinct elasmotherine rhinoceroses.

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