Abstract
THE name thegosis was coined by Every and Kühne1 for the short and powerful process of tooth sharpening which is accomplished in mammals by the grinding of one tooth against another. Thegosis produces sharp-edged, planar (or curved planar) wear surfaces on the teeth. The thegosis wear facets cut straight across boundaries between dentine and enamel and are typically marked with deep parallel striations (not necessarily coincident with the maximum slope of the wear facet). In some mammals thegosis keeps certain teeth sharply honed for use as weapons (as with the canines of suids and hippopotamids); in others thegosis sharpens the teeth which deal with food (as with the carnassial apparatus in felids).
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THULBORN, R. Thegosis in herbivorous dinosaurs. Nature 250, 729–731 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/250729b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/250729b0
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