Description
Roll your tongue across your teeth and then wonder at the historic evolution responsible for designing these biting oral implements and how nature restructured the anatomy in different vertebrates. Zoologist Bill Schutt whimsically in his inimitable wry writing style describes how vampire bats use their dentition to obtain a bloody meal, or check out how the tusks of narwhals or elephants develop and are used. Beware of a shrew’s paralyzing bite where the victim is slowly eaten alive. Check out the poisonous vipers whose modified teeth serve both a protective and predatory function and be cautious of the myriad poisonous biting fish that swim in the oceans.
The story of tooth development and specialization is a long epic with genetic changes being tested over at least a million years. Do chickens have teeth, evidently not, but looking back on the genetic record, their ancestors did. There is much fascinating detail about the development of teeth, but the lay reader may be challenged by the fossil time records over millions of years along with the unpronounceable scientific names of the historic species recognized from fossil records. Unfortunately, the penned lined drawings used as illustrations are frequently unhelpful and colored representations would have more clearly delineated how the genetic tinkering modified bones, muscles, and dentition.