Paleontologists are beginning to wonder if cuspids — also known as canines, or eye teeth, those fangs in the upper jaw — played a more complicated role in evolution than just tearing up chunks of prehistoric meat.
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A study published in PLOS ONE looks at the cuspids of our ancestors from way, way back: The 300 million year old pre-mammalian therapsids, a point in evolution where teeth began to separate into distinct types.
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Canine guidance occlusion/mutually protected/ cuspid protection is a concept that was introduced by Nagao in 1919. It is defined as the contact of maxillary cuspids with the lower cuspids or premolars on all eccentric movements. Support of the Cuspid Protected Occlusion (CPO) was made by early studies that showed predominance of innate CPO in mammals. They also argued that the canine tooth possessed enhanced proprioception, thereby 'protecting' unfavourable forces on other teeth in the dentition.
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A cusp is an occlusal or incisal eminence on a tooth. Canine teeth, otherwise known as cuspids, each possess a single cusp, while premolars, otherwise known as bicuspids, possess two each. Molars normally possess either four or five cusps. In certain populations the maxillary molars, especially first molars, will possess a fifth cusp situated on the mesiolingual cusp known as the Cusp of Carabelli.
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Parailurus is a genus of extinct carnivoran mammal in the family Ailuridae. It was about 50% larger than Ailurus (red panda) and lived in the early to late Pliocene Epoch, and its fossils have been found in Europe, North America, and Japan. The fossils of P. baikalicus carry low-crowned lower molars, along with the main cuspids of the cheek teeth being worn horizontally. This suggests P. baikalicus commonly ate leaves.
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Another ancestral candidate is the Plio-Pleistocene L. sekowei of South Africa on the basis of distinct accessory cusps on its premolars and anterior accessory cuspids on its lower premolars. These adaptions are found only in Lycaon among living canids, which shows the same adaptations to a hypercarnivorous diet. L. sekowei had not yet lost the first metacarpal absent in L. pictus and was more robust than the modern species, having 10% larger teeth.
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The inferior dental plexus is a nerve plexus which supplies the lower jaw. It is branches off of the inferior alveolar nerve and functions as innervation to the mandibular molars, first bicuspid, and part of the second bicuspid. The inferior dental plexus does not supply innervation to the cuspids or incisors as they get innervation from the incisive branch of the inferior alveolar nerve which branches as the inferior alveolar nerve exits the mental foramen as the mental nerve.
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The roosting position distinguishes it from similar bats, they lay their body close to the surface with the forearms stretched out and shoulders raising the head up. The peculiar posture of the bat is described as crab-like. It is similar to other sheathtails, smaller than Taphozous troughtoni, which also occurs in northern Queensland, and distinguished from Taphozous hilli of central Australia by the lack of neck pouch (gular sac) in the male and greater interval between the cuspids.
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In mammalian oral anatomy, the canine teeth, also called cuspids, dog teeth, or (in the context of the upper jaw) fangs, eye teeth, vampire teeth, or vampire fangs, are the relatively long, pointed teeth. They can appear more flattened however, causing them to resemble incisors and leading them to be called incisiform. They developed and are used primarily for firmly holding food in order to tear it apart, and occasionally as weapons. They are often the largest teeth in a mammal's mouth.
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MNHN, Paris The skull of Cynthiacetus was similar in size and morphology to that of Basilosaurus, but Cynthiacetus lacked the elongated vertebrae of Basilosaurus. erected the genus to avoid the nomen dubium Pontogeneus (which was based on poorly described and now vanished specimens). Cynthiacetus was smaller than Masracetus. The South American species C. peruvianus, the first archaeocete to be described on that continent, mainly differs from C. maxwelli in the number of cuspids in the lower premolars, but it also has the greatest numbers of thoracic vertebrae (20).
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Planetary SETI is concerned with the search for extraterrestrial structures on the surface of bodies in the Solar System. Claims for evidence of extraterrestrial artifacts can be divided into three groups, the Moon, Mars, and the other planets and their satellites. Examples of sites of interest include the "bridge" sighted in the Mare Crisium in 1953, and the "Blair Cuspids", "an unusual arrangement of seven spirelike objects of varying heights" at the western edge of the Mare Tranquillitatis, photographed by in Lunar Orbiter 2 on 20 November 1966.Louis Proud, The Secret Influence of the Moon: Alien Origins and Occult Powers (Inner Traditions / Bear & Co, 2013) In 2006, Ian Crawford proposed that a search for alien artifacts be conducted on the Moon.
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In addition, they are many palatal teeth, and the teeth of the upper jaws are numerous (four premaxillary and eleven maxillary teeth) and spatulate with many cuspids. The front teeth, fairly long and slightly recurved, were probably suited to aid in gathering vegetation into the mouth, whereas it is presumed that palatal teeth had to worked in conjunction with a tough and massive muscular tongue as indicated by the presence of a very well- developed hyoid apparatus. Characteristically, Euromycter shows an unusually broad skull, large temporal fenestra, and lack of expansion of the axial neural spine. It can be distinguished from other caseids by the presence of a supernumerary blade-like intranarial bone located posteromedially to the septomaxilla, proportional differences in forelimb and manus, presence of an accessory proximal articulation between metacarpals 3 and 4, medial recurvature of metacarpal, and its manual phalangeal formula of 2-3-4-4-3.
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