Carnassial
Sign in to saveAlso known as carnassial tooth, carnassial teeth, shearing tooth, shearing teeth
thumb|Carnassials of a dog
~8 min read
Encyclopedic overview
5 sectionsContents
- Taxonomy
- Carnassial dentition
- Evolution of carnassial teeth
- Disease
- References
thumb|Carnassials of a dog
Carnassials are paired upper and lower teeth modified in such a way as to allow enlarged and often self-sharpening edges to pass by each other in a shearing manner. This adaptation is found in carnivorans, where the carnassials are the modified fourth upper premolar and the first lower molar. These teeth are also referred to as sectorial teeth.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Carnassial” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.