Humans have multiple kinds of teeth, we are heterodontic. The photo you have shows primarily the front teeth which are indeed quite good at pulling things off, like a leaf of lettuce. THen there are of course the canines which function similarly to the way they do for that lioness in the bottom right. At the back, we have the molars, which are used for grinding things. So really we have teeth similar to the lion, as the lion is also heterodontic. That shark however is homodontic, ie: it has only one kind of tooth. It's teeth also replace themselves pretty regularly, whereas ours do not.
So it would be foolish to say that our teeth were built for any one particular kind of food.
Dentition is cool! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dentition
Humans have multiple kinds of teeth, we are heterodontic. The photo you have shows primarily the front teeth which are indeed quite good at pulling things off, like a leaf of lettuce. THen there are of course the canines which function similarly to the way they do for that lioness in the bottom right. At the back, we have the molars, which are used for grinding things. So really we have teeth similar to the lion, as the lion is also heterodontic. That shark however is homodontic, ie: it has only one kind of tooth. It's teeth also replace themselves pretty regularly, whereas ours do not.
ReplyDeleteSo it would be foolish to say that our teeth were built for any one particular kind of food.
Dentition is cool! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dentition