Re: Sorry about being off topic...Re: Wisdom Teeth in Fossil Record

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

On Thu, 19 Oct 2000 20:12:24  
 christopher robert noto wrote:
>Yeah, and if you're like me, then you get to keep them in...'cause you
>have a big mouth ;)
>
>But seriously it is a curious condition, how some of us have them and some
>not at all.  It's like watching evolution in action...almost.  I know this
>is a bit silly, but it's interesting because we seem to be in the middle
>of evolving the loss of these teeth.  But this makes me think, if people
>just get the troubled teeth pulled out, is there any reason for selection
>to act upon individuals with this condition anymore?  I mean will we ever
>lose them?

Yeah, the interesting part is that both of my parents and my brothers have 
them, yet mine are absent.  But, neither of my parents got theirs removed (and 
I doubt their parents did if they had them).

I suppose this is like watching evolution in action, in a sense.  Obviously the 
third molars of humans are mostly a nuisance, because of our short, crowded 
jaws.  I suppose that we would have naturally lost them over time, but who 
knows what human (i.e. dentist) intervention will do over the course of time.

Steve

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


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