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Root growth compensates for molar wear in adult goats (Capra aegagrus hircus).

  • Ackermans NL Clinic for Zoo Animals, Exotic Pets and Wildlife, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Zurih, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Clauss M Clinic for Zoo Animals, Exotic Pets and Wildlife, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Zurih, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Winkler DE Institute for Geosciences, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
  • Schulz-Kornas E Max Planck Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
  • Kaiser TM Center of Natural History, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
  • Müller DWH Zoologischer Garten Halle GmbH, Halle (Saale), Germany.
  • Kircher PR Division of Diagnostic Imaging, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Hummel J Department of Animal Sciences, Ruminant Nutrition, Georg-August-University, Göttingen, Germany.
  • Hatt JM Clinic for Zoo Animals, Exotic Pets and Wildlife, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Zurih, Zurich, Switzerland.
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  • 2018-12-05
Published in:
  • Journal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological and integrative physiology. - 2019
3D imaging
cementum
controlled feeding experiment
dental wear
ruminant teeth
tooth volume
Animal Feed
Animals
Goats
Molar
Tooth Wear
English One reason for the mammalian clade's success is the evolutionary diversity of their teeth. In herbivores, this is represented by high-crowned teeth evolved to compensate for wear caused by dietary abrasives like phytoliths and grit. Exactly how dietary abrasives wear teeth is still not understood completely. We fed four different pelleted diets of increasing abrasiveness (L: Lucerne; G: grass; GR: grass and rice husks; GRS: grass, rice husks, and sand) to four groups of a total of 28 adult goats, all with completely erupted third molars, over a six-month period. Tooth morphology was captured by medical computed tomography scans at the beginning and end of the controlled feeding experiment, and separation lines between the crown and root segments were defined in the upper right second molar (M2), to gauge absolute wear. Using bootstrapping, significant differences in volume loss between diets L/G and GR/GRS were detected. A small but nevertheless consistent volume gain was noted in the roots, and there was a significant, positive correlation between crown volume loss and root volume gain. This growth could possibly be attributed to the well-known process of cementum deposition and its relation with a putative feedback mechanism, in place to attenuate wear caused by abrasive diets.
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  • English
Open access status
green
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https://sonar.ch/global/documents/226501
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