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. Enamel has a complex internal microstructure full of phylogenetic and biomechanic information. The history of enamel research is closely linked to the advances in microscope technology. Enamel received renewed interest with each step in the development of modern microscope technology. The descriptive approach which includes the investigation of fossil teeth was pushed forward by Korvenkontio examining the great variety of rodent incisors. Scanning electron microscopy encouraged many workers to investigate tooth enamel, not the least triggered by the aesthetic quality of the observed structures. The origin of enamel prisms characterizing mammalian enamel is discussed by various authors at the prism level. In contrast to prevailing research tradition, P. M. Sander takes the bottom up perspective on the problem by discussing nonmammalian synapsid enamel and providing a new base for the understanding of prism origin.
