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Published on: March 29, 2018
Sea otter dental enamel is highly resistant to chipping due to its microstructure
Charles Ziscovici1, Peter W Lucas2, Paul J Constantino3
1Department of Anthropology, Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA.
Abstract:
Dental enamel is prone to damage by chipping with large hard objects at forces that depend on chip size and enamel toughness. Experiments on modern human teeth have suggested that some ante-mortem chips on fossil hominin enamel were produced by bite forces near physiological maxima. Here, we show that equivalent chips in sea otter enamel require even higher forces than human enamel. Increased fracture resistance correlates with more intense enamel prism decussation, often seen also in some fossil hominins. It is possible therefore that enamel chips in such hominins may have formed at even greater forces than currently envisaged.
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