Dental morphospace — click a species to highlight · axes: cusp complexity vs. enamel thickness
Tooth Morphology
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Dietary Traits
Teeth are among the best-preserved fossils, revealing diet with extraordinary precision. The evolution of tribosphenic molars (three-cusped) in early Mesozoic mammals enabled a shift from insectivory to omnivory. Hypsodonty (high-crowned teeth) evolved independently in grazers to resist abrasive grasses — a direct response to grassland expansion ~20 Mya. Lophodonty creates ridges for shearing leaves; bunodont cusps crush fruit. Tooth shape is so informative that dental morphometrics can predict diet, body mass, and phylogeny with ~85% accuracy.