Sunday, August 2, 2009

Why do Killer whales and similar sea creatures have perfectly straight teeth and humans have crooked teeth?

any picture you see of them they all have perfect teeth (killer whales)

Why do Killer whales and similar sea creatures have perfectly straight teeth and humans have crooked teeth?
Most organisms in the animal kingdom have been here and evolving for a longer period of time then primates. Any organisms whose teeth were truly crooked to a fault would have been eliminated from the gene pool and animals especially ancient wild ones had very poor dentists, LOL. The crooked teeth individuals were removed from the gene pool over time and therefore the genes for better tooth structure and function survived and thrived. Also if you were to really compare a large sample of jaw structure of killer whales you would indeed notice differences in tooth patterns. Another fact is also remember killer whale teeth are shaped like cones so you can not really tell the front or back since they are round, therefore a tooth could be twisted 90 degrees right and would look the same.
Reply:sorry this not an answer but I have to say i never thought of that but it is very true.
Reply:Because - most animals have a bunch of teeth that are all... in line, with their evolutionary past.


We have teeth that are considered "vestigial" (wisdom teeth) - and often times DO NOT fit in our mouths or cause problems - thus causing 90% of the population to have them removed.


Oftentimes, if they're allowed to grow in, they will cause other teeth to be moved out of the way.





Also - not everyone has crooked teeth. I have plenty of friends who've never had braces that have perfectly straight teeth. So this is also affected partly by genetics.


Dogs/Cats/Horses, etc. can also suffer from bite problems (look at bulldogs, genetically engineered by humans with an UNDERBITE.. this is not a normal bite condition).


If you show/breed dogs or cats, one of the things the judges will always check is the teeth and the bite - are the front teeth crooked, is the bite lined up properly?


So this also shows there's a genetic aspect to it - because if a dog has a poor bite/crooked teeth, you really don't want to breed it, because the puppies will mostly likely have bite problems as well.





With cetaceans - they've mostly reverted back to a homodont like dentition where all of the teeth serve the same function (cone teeth similiar in Alligators and Crocs for biting down and holding on to fish and other prey).


Since neither of these species have to *chew* their food, they have no need for molars, or incisors for biting off chunks of food, and, so - like I said, specifically with cetaceans since this would be a evolutionary transition BACK to homodont dentition whereas crocs and alligators have homodont dentition by nature.



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