Teeth and Chewing
Figure 11
- Hadrosaurs have as many as 1000 teeth, packed tightly into four separate dental
batterries (rows of teeth packed closely together to form large grinding surfaces),
one in each half of each jaw.
- Reptiles continually replace their teeth throughout life.
- The enamel cutting edges are therefore, arranged fore and aft, which means that
the teeth must have moved from side to side and not from front to back.
- This deduction is supported by the presence of striations (revealed by scanning
electron microscope) oriented from side to side.
- There is also evidence of the way that the dentine has worn away.
- They used a duck-like bill, covered with a tough keratinous
sheath, to nip off vegetation.
- They appear to have had cheeks allowing them to keep food in
their mouths while chewing.
- After grinding up their food, they swallowed and digested it
with the aid of plant digesting bacteria and stomach acids.
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