Date of Award
4-1-2022
Document Type
Honors Thesis
Department
Biology
First Advisor
Daniel Gonzalez-Socoloske
Abstract
While much is known regarding limitless horizontal replacement of manatee teeth, the morphology and topography of the teeth have not been formally described, nor have interspecific differences and ontogenic changes in relative tooth size been described in detail. To physically describe the teeth, photographs of the molars from West Indian manatees (Trichechus manatus) and Amazonian manatees (T. inunguis) were taken and the features of the teeth were identified. To compare tooth size differences, the area of the posterior-most molar in occlusion was measured from both the upper and lower molars of the manatee skulls from West Indian and Amazonian manatees. West Indian manatees had significantly larger molars than Amazonian manatees both absolutely (t(105) = 14.8, p< 0.05) and relatively (t(105) = 14.6, p < 0.05). Additionally, the relative tooth size of Amazonian manatee molars increased with age (r(89) = 0.51, p < 0.05), while this same increase did not occur with West Indian manatees (r(22) = 0.042, p > 0.05). These findings could explain West Indian manatees' (particularly the Florida subspecies) increased tooth wear and vulnerability to environmental changes.
Recommended Citation
Goulbourne, Lyle, "Interspecific and Ontogenic Differences in the Molar Occlusal Surfaces of Manatees (Sirenia: Trichechidae)" (2022). Honors Theses. 318.
https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/honors/318
Subject Area
Manatees; Amazonian manatee; West Indian manatee; Teeth
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
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