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Teeth

Teeth

The formation of teeth, also known as odontogenesis, is a complex process that begins in utero, around the sixth week of embryonic development. There are three stages to this process: the bud stage, the cap stage, and the bell stage.
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Synteny and Evolution

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The Evidence for Evolution

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Tooth Anatomy

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 17, 2025

Systematic Assessment of Mammalian Skull Specimens for Dental and Temporomandibular Joint Pathology

Systematic Assessment of Mammalian Skull Specimens for Dental and Temporomandibular Joint Pathology

Published on: August 22, 2022

Rules of teeth development align microevolution with macroevolution in extant and extinct primates.

Fabio A Machado¹, Carrie S Mongle^2,3, Graham Slater⁴

¹Department of Integrative Biology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA. fabio.machado@okstate.edu.

Nature Ecology & Evolution

|August 31, 2023

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Integrating developmental biology (evo-devo) with quantitative genetics bridges micro- and macroevolutionary scales. Biologically informed models reveal corridor-like adaptive landscapes for primate teeth evolution.

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary biology
Developmental biology (evo-devo)
Quantitative genetics

Background:

Classical macroevolutionary studies often separate macro- and microevolutionary processes.
Quantitative genetics models struggle to predict long-term evolutionary patterns in morphology.
Developmental studies (evo-devo) offer a potential link but lack a formal framework for phenotypic diversification.

Purpose of the Study:

To determine if quantifying biological variation using evo-devo models enhances comparative models.
To bridge the gap between microevolutionary and macroevolutionary scales.
To integrate evo-devo into the modern synthesis for understanding macroevolutionary causes.

Main Methods:

Developing a formal framework to apply evo-devo models to phenotypic diversification.
Utilizing biologically informed morphospaces alongside quantitative genetics.
Analyzing a comprehensive dataset of primate lower molar evolution across living and extinct taxa.

Main Results:

Biologically informed morphospaces, combined with quantitative genetics, enable a seamless transition between micro- and macroevolutionary scales.
Biologically uninformed morphospaces fail to provide this integrative capability.
The adaptive landscape for primate teeth evolution is corridor-like, with near-neutral morphological changes within the corridor.

Conclusions:

The proposed framework successfully integrates evo-devo into evolutionary biology.
This approach provides an operational method for evaluating the ultimate causes of macroevolution.
Understanding developmental variation is key to linking micro- and macroevolutionary processes.