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Shown
below are some diagrams that I have prepared to illustrate the differences
in dental anatomy between the thylacine and its often-cited placental analogue,
the wolf. Although there are also a number of notable differences
in post-cranial skeletal structure between these two species, I felt that
the dentition represented one of the most striking dissimilarities.
As can easily be seen in the images of the maxillae (upper jaws), the thylacine
has 8 upper incisors, whereas the wolf has only 6. In the
mandible (lower jaw) however, the thylacine and wolf have an equal number
of incisors. Another major difference is the presence of a specialized
shearing tooth, the carnassial, in the wolf. This tooth is
a distinguishing characteristic of the wolf and other members of the placental
mammal family Carnivora. Also make note that unlike the wolf,
the thylacine lacks large grinding surfaces on its molars. The wolf
has a total of 42 teeth, and the thylacine 46. All of the photographs
on this page are of highly precise resin replicas, cast from natural specimens.
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MAXILLARY
COMPARISON
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MANDIBULAR
COMPARISON
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| For those not familiar
with dental abbreviations, their meanings are:
i - incisor
C - canine
P - premolar
M - molar
Note the enormous
lower carnassial (M1) in the wolf mandible, which has evolved from the
first molar. The thylacine lacks this particular type of specialization.
Instead, all of its post-canine teeth have become adapted for shearing,
and have very distinct cutting edges. You can read further details
about the thylacine's dentition in the Anatomy
pages of the Natural History section. |
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