The sharpest tools in the box? Quantitative analysis of conodont element functional morphology

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Volumn 279, Issue 1739, 2012, Pages 2849-2854

  Jones, David ^a   Evans, Alistair R ^b   Siu, Karen K W ^b,c   Rayfield, Emily J ^a   Donoghue, Philip C J ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL   (United Kingdom)

^b MONASH UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

^c AUSTRALIAN SYNCHROTRON   (Australia)

Author keywords

Conodont; Dental tools; Finite element analysis; Tooth; Wurmiella excavata

Indexed keywords

CLADISTICS; CONODONT; CONVERGENT EVOLUTION; DENTITION; FINITE ELEMENT METHOD; FUNCTIONAL MORPHOLOGY; MAMMAL; PHYLOGENETICS; QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS;

EID: 84862136919     PISSN: 09628452     EISSN: 14712954     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2012.0147     Document Type: Article

References (34)

1. Donoghue, P. C. J., Forey, P. L. & Aldridge, R. J. 2000 Conodont affinity and chordate phylogeny. Biol. Rev. 75, 191-251. (doi:10.1017/s0006323199005472)
2. Purnell, M. A. & Donoghue, P. C. J. 1997 Architecture and functional morphology of the skeletal apparatus of ozarkodinid conodonts. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 352, 1545-1564. (doi:10.1098/rstb.1997.0141)
3. Purnell, M. A. & Donoghue, P. C. J. 1998 Skeletal architecture, homologies and taphonomy of ozarkodinid conodonts. Palaeontology 41, 57-102.
4. Purnell, M. A. 1995 Microwear on conodont elements and macrophagy in the first vertebrates. Nature 374, 798-800. (doi:10.1038/374798a0)
5. Purnell, M. A. & Jones, D. Submitted. Quantitative analysis of conodont tooth wear and damage as a test of ecological and functional hypotheses. Paleobiology.
6. Donoghue, P. C. J. & Purnell, M. A. 1999 Mammal-like occlusion in conodonts. Paleobiology 25, 58-74.
7. Jeppsson, L. 1979Conodont element function. Lethaia 12, 153-170. (doi:10.1111/j.1502-3931.1979.tb00994.x)
8. Donoghue, P. C. J. & Purnell, M. A. 1999 Growth, function, and the conodont fossil record. Geology 27, 251-254. (doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1999)027,0251: gfatcf.2.3.co;2)
9. Donoghue, P. C. J. & Sansom, I. J. 2002 Origin and early evolution of vertebrate skeletonization. Microsc. Res. Tech. 59, 352-372. (doi:10.1002/jemt.10217)
10. Rayfield, E. J. 2007 Biomechanics and evolution of living and fossil organisms. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 35, 541-576.
11. Evans, A. R. 2005 Connecting morphology, function and tooth wear in microchiropterans. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 85, 81-96. (doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.2005.00474.x)
12. Evans, A. R. & Sanson, G. D. 1998 The effect of tooth shape on the breakdown of insects. J. Zool. 246, 391-400. (doi:10.1017/s0952836998009832)
13. Evans, A. R. & Sanson, G. D. 2003 The tooth of perfection: functional and spatial constraints on mammalian tooth shape. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 78, 173-191. (doi:10. 1046/j.1095-8312.2003.00146.x)
14. Evans, A. R. & Sanson, G. D. 2005 Correspondence between tooth shape and dietary biomechanical properties in insectivorous microchiropterans. Evol. Ecol. Res. 7, 453-478.
15. Evans, A. R. & Sanson, G.D. 2005 Biomechanical properties of insects in relation to insectivory: cuticle thickness as an indicator of insect 'hardness' and 'intractability'. Aust. J. Zool. 53, 9-19. (doi:10.1071/zo04018)
16. Evans, A. R. & Sanson, G. D. 2006 Spatial and functional modeling of carnivore and insectivore molariform teeth. J. Morphol. 267, 649-662. (doi:10.1002/jmor.10285)
17. Sweet, W. C. 1988 The conodonta: morphology, taxonomy, paleoecology, and evolutionary history of a long-extinct animal phylum 212 p. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.
18. von Bitter, P. H., Purnell, M. A., Tetreault, D. K. & Stott, C. A. 2007 Eramosa Lagerstatte-exceptionally preserved soft-bodied biotas with shallow-marine shelly and bioturbating organisms (Silurian, Ontario, Canada). Geology 35, 879-882. (doi:10.1130/g23894a.1)
19. Rasband, W. S. 1997-2011 IMAGEJ. Bethesda, MD: U.S. National Institute of Health. See http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/.
20. Jones, D., Purnell, M. A. & Von Bitter, P. H. 2009 Morphological criteria for recognising homology in isolated skeletal elements: comparison of traditional and morphometric approaches in conodonts. Palaeontology 52, 1243-1256. (doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2009.00915.x)
21. Schubert, B. W. & Ungar, P. S. 2005 Wear facets and enamel spalling in tyrannosaurid dinosaurs. Acta Palaeontol. Pol. 50, 93-99.
22. Popowics, T. E. & Fortelius, M. 1997 On the cutting edge: tooth blade sharpness in herbivorous and faunivorous mammals. Ann. Zool. Fennici 34, 73-88.
23. Freeman, P.W. &Weins, W.N. 1997 Puncturing ability of bat canine teeth: the tip. In Life among the muses: papers in honor of J. S. Findley (eds T. L. Yates, W. L. Gannon & D. E. Wilson), pp. 151-157. Albuquerque, NM: Museum of Southwestern Biology.
24. Rensberger, J. M. 1995 Determination of stresses in mammalian dental enamel and their relevance to the interpretation of feeding behaviors in extinct taxa. In Functional morphology in vertebrate paleontology (ed. J. J. Thomason), pp. 151-172. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
25. Freeman, P. W. & Lemen, C. 2006 Puncturing ability of idealized canine teeth: edged and non-edged shanks. J. Zool. 269, 51-56. (doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.2006.00049.x)
26. Anderson, P. S. L. 2009 The effects of trapping and blade angle of notched dentitions on fracture of biological tissues. J. Exp. Biol. 212, 3627-3632. (doi:10.1242/jeb. 033712)
27. Anderson, P. S. L. & LaBarbera, M. 2008 Functional consequences of tooth design: effects of blade shape on energetics of cutting. J. Exp. Biol. 211, 3619-3626. (doi:10.1242/jeb.020586)
28. Purnell, M. A. & von Bitter, P. H. 1992 Blade-shaped conodont elements functioned as cutting teeth. Nature 359, 629-631. (doi:10.1038/359629a0)
29. Lucas, P. W. 2004 Dental functional morphology: how teeth work, 355 p. Cambridge, UK:Cambridge University Press.
30. Freeman, P.W. 1992 Canine teeth of bats (Microchiroptera): size, shape and role in crack-propagation. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 45, 97-115. (doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.1992.tb00634.x)
31. Abler, W. L. 1992 The serrated teeth of tyrannosaurid dinosaurs, and biting structures in other animals. Paleobiology 18, 161-183.
32. Frazzetta, T. H. 1988 The mechanics of cutting and the form of shark teeth (Chondrichthyes, Elasmobranchii). Zoomorphology 108, 93-107. (doi:10.1007/bf00539785)
33. Rensberger, J. M. 2000 Pathways to functional differentiation in mammalian enamel. In Development, function and evolution of teeth (eds M. F. Teaford, M. M. Smith & M. W. J. Ferguson), pp. 252-268. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
34. Evans, A. R., Hunter, J., Fortelius, M. & Sanson, G. D. 2005 The scaling of tooth sharpness in mammals. Ann. Zool. Fennici 42, 603-613.