How Snakes Renew Their Teeth: A Fascinating Scientific Discovery
How Snakes Renew Their Teeth: A Fascinating Scientific Discovery
In a recent study led by a researcher from King’s College London’s Center for Oral, Clinical, and Translational Sciences, scientists have uncovered intriguing differences in tooth replacement mechanisms between snakes and other reptiles. This research sheds light on the unique way snakes shed their old teeth.
While most reptiles continuously grow new teeth to replace the old ones, snakes follow an unconventional path. Unlike their reptilian counterparts, snakes lack “replacement pits,” which typically erode the base of old teeth during new tooth growth—a process known as external dental resorption.
Instead, snakes employ specialized cells called odontoclasts. These cells break down the dentin within the tooth, facilitating the removal of old teeth. Remarkably, evidence of this internal dental resorption can be non-invasively detected using computerized tomographic scanning.
This distinctive method of tooth replacement appears consistently across the evolutionary spectrum of snakes, underscoring its fundamental role in their biology.
Dr. Aaron LeBlanc, the lead author of the study and a lecturer in Dental Biosciences at the Faculty of Dentistry, Oral, and Craniofacial Sciences, emphasizes the significance of this discovery for understanding snake evolution. By studying this tooth detachment mechanism in modern snakes, researchers may develop novel techniques to identify fossilized jaws from early snake species.
Unlike other reptiles, snake tooth replacement lacks a direct equivalent. As each snake tooth matures, it undergoes substantial internal changes. Large cells gradually break down the tooth from within, ultimately weakening its base. This weakening allows the old tooth to detach from the jaw, making way for a new replacement tooth.
Sources: phys.org; kcl.ac.uk;
Image Sources: shutterstock.com
