ABSTRACT

Enamel, the shiny material covering the teeth of vertebrates is the hardest tissue the vertebrate body can produce and one of the most impressive products of biomineralization. This hard tissue is closely related to feeding, the first part in the energy intake process so basic to vertebrate life. Enamel has a complex internal microstructure full of phylogenetic and biomechanic information.
Topics covered: Ontogeny; Crystallite level; Prism level; Enamel type level; Schmelzmuster level; Dentition level; Evolution; Biomechanical level; Glossary.

chapter |3 pages

Introduction

ByWighart v. Koenigswald, P. Martin Sander

chapter Chapter 1|26 pages

The ontogeny of mammalian enamel

ByLetty Moss-Salentijn, Melvin L. Moss, Michael Sheng-Tien Yuan

chapter Chapter 2|9 pages

A short review of studies on chemical and physical properties of enamel crystallites

ByToshiro Sakae, Kunihiro Suzuki, Yukishige Kozawa

chapter Chapter 4|21 pages

The earliest prisms in mammalian and reptilian enamel

ByCraig B. Wood, Doris N. Stern

chapter Chapter 6|9 pages

Tubules in Australian Marsupials

ByCoral F. Gilkeson

chapter Chapter 7|14 pages

Differentiations in Hunter-Schreger bands of carnivores

ByClara Stefen

chapter Chapter 8|25 pages

Brief survey of enamel diversity at the schmelzmuster level in Cenozoic placental mammals

ByWighart v. Koenigswald

chapter Chapter 9|13 pages

Incisor enamel microstructure and systematics in rodents

ByThomas Martin

chapter Chapter 10|15 pages

The enamel structure of some fossil and recent whales from the Indian subcontinent

ByAshok Sahni, Wighart v. Koenigswald

chapter Chapter 11|9 pages

The variability of enamel structure at the dentition level

ByWighart v. Koenigswald

chapter Chapter 12|33 pages

Evolutionary trends in the differentiation of mammalian enamel ultrastructure

ByWighart v. Koenigswald

chapter Chapter 13|21 pages

Mechanical adaptation in enamel

ByJohn M. Rensberger

chapter Chapter 14|8 pages

Schmelzmuster differentiation in leading and trailing edges, a specific biomechanical adaptation in rodents

ByWighart v. Koenigswald, P. Martin Sander

chapter Chapter 15|14 pages

Glossary of terms used for enamel microstructures

ByWighart v. Koenigswald, P. Martin Sander