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How did teeth evolve? - Peter S. Ungar

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You may take them for granted, but your teeth are a marvel. They break up all your food over the course of your life, while being strong enough to withstand breakage themselves. How do they do it? Peter S. Ungar traces the evolution of mammalian molars from primitive cone-like structures to the myriad forms of today’s species, from lions to cows to people.

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Meet The Creators

  • Educator Peter S. Ungar
  • Director Felipe Grosso
  • Script Editor Emma Bryce
  • Art Director Shuggie Laufquen
  • Animator Shuggie Laufquen, Mateus Contini, Kelvin Lima
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by TED-Ed

How can fossil teeth help us reconstruct the diets of extinct species? What can this teach us about evolution?

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Avatar for Karine Santana
Lesson completed

It teach us that the evolution off teeth occours according to animals eat, as we are all evolutionary beings, we are constantlely evolving.
I came from the Linguamarina channel.


Avatar for Harry Connerty
Lesson completed

Fossil teeth can help us reconstruct the diet of extinct species because to help us understand how we will do that. Information can teach us about evolution.


Avatar for matthew meyer
Lesson in progress

It can teach us how certain species adapted to their environment


Avatar for Lorenzo Mottinelli
Lesson completed

Fossil teeth can help us to reconstruct the diets of extinct species by their shapes which can then indicate the type of animal. For example blunt teeth would belong to animals like cows whereas cone like shapes would relate to animals like fish or reptiles. Teeth have evolved to adapt to our different needs. The cusps and crowns in teeth can hep us to understand what the teeth were used for . For example for simply chewing or for slicing and dicing.


Avatar for Nabilah Begum
Lesson in progress

Humans knowledge will become more aware and advance of the human body and what lies in the human body.


Avatar for Nabilah Begum
Lesson in progress

Yes i agree that by trying out this method we as human beings can discover out teeth that we dont know about.


Avatar for Gabrielle Kucela
Lesson in progress

If you see things that animals ate, than you can find out all about their diet. It can teach us how different our teeth have become, and we might be able to see new types of teeth that we don't have.


Avatar for Reagan M
Lesson completed

This teaches us how teeth evolved and what they eat. This could help us figure out more about the predators of now extinct animals.


Avatar for EmmaLee Adkins
Lesson completed

The teeth could let us figure out what animals ate then. If they ate the same that animals eat today.


Avatar for Jessica Qiu
Lesson completed

Since different species have different diets, they need different types of teeth in order to consume their diet. Fossil teeth can help us reconstruct the diets because we can predict what type of food can be eaten with this type of teeth. We can learn about evolution from this because we can see how the teeth and also how the diet has changed over time.

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