Aberrant growth of maxillary canine teeth in male babirusa (genus Babyrousa)

Abstract

A worldwide survey of babirusa skulls curated in museum and private collections located 431 that were from adult males and had retained at least one maxillary canine tooth. Eighty-three of these skulls were identified as exhibiting aberrant maxillary canine tooth growth. Twenty-four of the skulls represented babirusa from Buru and the Sula Islands, and forty-five skulls represented babirusa from Sulawesi and the Togian Islands. The remaining series of fourteen babirusa skulls originally came from zoo animals. Fifteen skulls showed anomalous alveolar and tooth rotation in a median plane. Twenty-nine skulls had maxillary canine teeth that did not grow symmetrically towards the median plane of the cranium. Fourteen skulls showed evidence that the tips of one or both maxillary canine teeth had eroded the nasal bones. Twenty-one skulls had maxillary canine teeth that had eroded the frontal bones. The teeth of two skulls had eroded a parietal bone. One skull had two maxillary canines arising from an adjacent pair of alveoli on the left side of the cranium. Three skulls exhibited alveoli with no formed maxillary canine teeth in them. Analysis suggested that approximately 12% of the adult male babirusa in the wild experience erosion of the cranial bony tissues as a result of maxillary canine tooth growth. There was no skeletal evidence that maxillary canine teeth penetrate the eye.