back to article Prehistoric-super-tooth dentists drill DIAMONDS into duck-billed 'saur riddle

Some dentistry work on a 70-million-year-old tooth has provided an insight into the evolutionary success of duck-billed dinosaurs. Hadrosaurs' unique tooth structure is now a vital clue in the mystery of how the billed herbivores, dubbed "the cows of the Cretaceous era", spread so far and lived for so long. The ancient …

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  1. Andraž 'ruskie' Levstik

    Now

    why don't us humans have the 6 layers and the constantly replacing teeth.

    1. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

      Re: Now

      Are you kiding?! And have constant teething pain?

  2. Armando 123

    Does this make sense?

    The fossil teeth are not the duckbill's teeth, they are fossil teeth: they are made of rock and replaced the original material in a way that we don't completely understand yet. How can they tell the wear rate by scratching on rocky material that replaced the original material?

    1. Yesnomaybe

      Re: Does this make sense?

      I guess it is a bit like homeopathy, the rock contains "the memory" of teeth, and so.... ah, never mind.

    2. Ru

      Re: Does this make sense?

      "they are fossil teeth: they are made of rock"

      As opposed to "living" teeth which are made of what... meat? Hydroxyapatite is a naturally occurring rock, too!

      All the organic components of the tooth will likely be long gone, but much of the mineral content may still be present after fossilisation. Given how long the hadrosaurids were in existence and how widespread they were, there will no doubt be many, many fossils to choose in order to find one with a plausible mineral content or even ones which still contain proteins.

  3. Kubla Cant
    Trollface

    1,400 teeth

    Considering how much I've spent on dentistry in the past month, 32 teeth (or, rather, what remains of them) is quite enough, thank you.

  4. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Happy

    Sounds like these beasts could rid us of bracken

    No other creature seems to want to eat that stuff. Forget getting velociraptors for a Jurassic Park experience, get us some hadrosaurs to chomp away at bracken!

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