Re: Wisdom Teeth in Fossil Record

["Steve Brusatte" <dinoland@lycos.com>]

On Thu, 19 Oct 2000 17:11:23  
 christopher brochu wrote:
>Wisdom teeth are specifically a Homo sapiens thing - basically, our snouts
>are too short for our third molars, but we haven't gotten around to losing
>them yet.  Except for a few lucky individuals such as yourself and those of
>us who've had them taken out the hard way, of course.  And in a few people,
>they erupt normally and function as normal molars.

Does anyone know if there are any other primates (extinct or extant) which also 
exhibit a short snout, and either are exhibiting or already have lost their set 
of third molars?  And, what about other hominids?  What about early human 
beings?  Is this specifically a Homo sapiens thing, as Dr. Brochu posted, or 
were the jaws of our immediate ancestors too short also?


>I'm not sure where within hominids we go from having normal third molars to
>the constricted condition in modern humans.  I don't work on primates.

>Loss of molars from behind occurs in other placental groups as well (e.g.
>cats), but the marsupial pattern is somewhat different.

What about non-placental mammals and other tetrapods (not that other tetrapod 
groups may have 'molars' per se, but related teeth)?

Steve


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Steve Brusatte
Dino Land Paleontology
http://www.geocities.com/stegob
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