Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior, University of Illinois, 515 Morrill Hall, 505 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
Field Museum of Natural History, Negaunee Integrative Research Center, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605-2496, USA.
Integr Comp Biol. 2020 Sep 1;60(3):594-607. doi: 10.1093/icb/icaa103.
Teeth lie at the interface between an animal and its environment and, with some exceptions, act as a major component of resource procurement through food acquisition and processing. Therefore, the shape of a tooth is closely tied to the type of food being eaten. This tight relationship is of use to biologists describing the natural history of species and given the high instance of tooth preservation in the fossil record, is especially useful for paleontologists. However, correlating gross tooth morphology to diet is only part of the story, and much more can be learned through the study of dental biomechanics. We can explore the mechanics of how teeth work, how different shapes evolved, and the underlying forces that constrain tooth shape. This review aims to provide an overview of the research on dental biomechanics, in both mammalian and non-mammalian teeth, and to synthesize two main approaches to dental biomechanics to develop an integrative framework for classifying and evaluating dental functional morphology. This framework relates food material properties to the dynamics of food processing, in particular how teeth transfer energy to food items, and how these mechanical considerations may have shaped the evolution of tooth morphology. We also review advances in technology and new techniques that have allowed more in-depth studies of tooth form and function.
牙齿位于动物与其环境的交界处，除了一些例外情况，它们通过食物的获取和加工成为获取资源的主要组成部分。因此，牙齿的形状与所吃的食物类型密切相关。这种紧密的关系对生物学家描述物种的自然历史很有用，而且鉴于牙齿在化石记录中保存的高比例，对古生物学家尤其有用。然而，将牙齿的宏观形态与饮食相关联只是故事的一部分，通过研究牙齿的生物力学可以了解更多信息。我们可以探索牙齿工作的力学原理、不同形状的进化方式以及限制牙齿形状的潜在力量。本篇综述旨在概述哺乳动物和非哺乳动物牙齿的牙齿生物力学研究，并综合两种主要的牙齿生物力学方法，以建立一个用于分类和评估牙齿功能形态的综合框架。这个框架将食物材料特性与食物加工的动力学联系起来，特别是牙齿如何将能量传递给食物，以及这些力学考虑因素可能如何影响牙齿形态的进化。我们还回顾了技术的进步和新技术，这些新技术使得对牙齿形态和功能的更深入研究成为可能。
