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Re: dino dental hygiene
I know monitor lizards actually prosper from the noxious bacteria in their
mouths for helping to bring down their living prey -
Don't underestimate the monitors' own venom, though.
do cold-blooded reptiles suffer from tooth decay? Is it only a mammalian
problem?
I don't know what being cold-blooded could have to do with it... in any
case, there is an ichthyosaur jaw from the Cretaceous of Australia that
shows caries, where food seems to have got stuck between the tooth roots*,
but this is exceptional because most vertebrates other than mammals replace
their teeth too often for caries to develop. (I have the paper in Vienna and
forgot the ref... I think it was in Alcheringa, maybe 5 years ago...)
* Ichthyosaurs are aulacodont, not thecodont: rather than each tooth having
its own socket, each jaw has a single continuous socket for the entire
toothrow, and the roots touch each other.
What about a kronosaur in the shallows at rest letting various fishes tidy
their oral cavities?
Entirely possible, but probably untestable at present.