Desarrollo y evolución dentaldel pez al hombre

Resumo

In our dental practices, we do not often think about the complex evolutionary processes that led to human teeth as we now know them. The study of dental evolution is one of the key points in anthropological and paleo´-anthropological studies. In the evolution of teeth, the predecessors of teeth arase from the placaid scales of fish, which in turn had evolved from the so-called corneal annexes (corneal phanerae), structures which share an origin, structure and similar functions with modern teeth, but which were still quite distant from what we consider true teeth. Conoid teeth evolved from the placoid scales, considered to be the first teeth per se. At the expense of so-called molarization, these conoid teeth gained complexity until taking on a quadrotubercular pattern. Since the advent of the first primates in the evolutionary tree, teeth experienced a decrease in number, size, elements and structure, similar to craneo-facial reduction. This dental reduction remains evident in man today.