Evolutionary History of Tooth Attachment Systems in Archosauromorpha: Understanding the Origin and Ontogeny of Archosaurian Thecodonty: Gabriel Mestriner da Silva (Exit Seminar)
Event Details
- Event Series
- Date
- October 7, 2026
- Time
- 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
- Location
- online only (pw: 3w3kr7)
- online access
About
The evolutionary success of major amniote lineages, particularly dinosaurs, has traditionally been attributed to innovations in locomotion, physiology, and metabolism. In contrast, the evolutionary significance of tooth attachment has received comparatively little attention. Ligamentous tooth attachment (gomphosis) has long been regarded as a unique feature of mammals and crocodilians, whereas most other amniotes have been interpreted as possessing fundamentally distinct, ankylosed dentitions. This thesis investigates the evolutionary history of tooth attachment across Amniota by integrating original histological data, comparative anatomy, phylogenetic methods, and deep-time evolutionary analyses.
Together, this PhD dissertation will provide the first comprehensive evolutionary synthesis of tooth attachment across Amniota, overturning the long-standing assumption that mammals and crocodilians are unique in possessing ligamentous dentitions. This thesis demonstrates that ligamentous dentitions evolved repeatedly through heterochronic modifications of homologous periodontal tissues rather than as a single evolutionary innovation. By placing these transformations within a robust phylogenetic and macroevolutionary framework, it identifies a previously unrecognized association between the evolution of ligamentous dentitions and periods of global environmental instability, establishing a new evolutionary framework for future investigations of dental evolution.
Supervisor: David Evans
Join this exit seminar (pw: 3w3kr7)