PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Vertebrates use the phosphate mineral apatite in their skeletons, which allowed them to develop tissues such as enamel, characterized by an outstanding combination of hardness and elasticity. It has been hypothesized that the evolution of the earliest vertebrate skeletal tissues, found in the teeth of the extinct group of conodonts, was driven by adaptation to dental function. We test this hypothesis quantitatively and demonstrate that the crystallographic order increased throughout the early evolution of conodont teeth in parallel with morphological adaptation to food processing. With the c-axes of apatite crystals oriented perpendicular to the functional feeding surfaces, the strongest resistance to uniaxial compressional stress is conferred along the long axes of denticles. Our results support increasing control over biomineralization in the first skeletonized vertebrates and allow us to test models of functional morphology and material properties across conodont dental diversity.
摘要：
脊椎动物在其骨骼中使用磷酸盐矿物磷灰石，这使得它们能够发育成牙釉质等组织，其特点是硬度和弹性的突出组合。据推测，最早的脊椎动物骨骼组织的进化，在已灭绝的牙形牙的牙齿中发现，是由适应牙科功能驱动的。我们定量地检验了这一假设，并证明了在整个牙形牙的早期进化过程中，晶体学顺序与对食品加工的形态适应同时增加。磷灰石晶体的c轴垂直于功能性进料表面取向，对单轴压缩应力的最强抵抗力是沿细齿的长轴赋予的。我们的结果支持在第一批骨骼化的脊椎动物中增加对生物矿化的控制，并使我们能够测试牙体牙体多样性的功能形态和材料特性模型。
