Description of Tooth Ontogeny and Replacement Patterns in a Juvenile Tarbosaurus bataar (Dinosauria: Theropoda) Using CT-Scan Data.

Abstract

Teeth are continually replaced in most of non-mammalian gnathostomes to maintain their functional dentitions. To clarify the tooth replacement patterns in tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaurs, we examined well-preserved dentitions (both premaxillae, left maxilla, partial right maxilla, and both dentaries) of a juvenile Tarbosaurus bataar (MPC-D 107/7) using X-ray computed tomographic (CT) imaging. Three-dimensional (3D) rendering of the dentitions and staging of replacement teeth allowed quantitative analyses of the tooth ontogeny and replacement patterns in this specimen. These strategies were validated by comparing the results between MPC-D 107/7 and extant crocodilians, which are taxa that have previously been studied using non-CT methods. 3D-rendered dentitions of MPC-D 107/7 showed alternate replacement patterns between odd- and even-numbered alveoli. Such patterns were discontinuous at the premaxilla-maxilla junctions, suggesting the division of replacement patterns between the two dentitions possessing morpho-functionally different features. The replacement process in the odd-numbered alveoli of the left maxilla sequentially proceeded from distal alveoli. Meanwhile, in the both dentaries, there were simple alternate patterns in which functional teeth would be simultaneously shed out in every second alveoli. Such a simple alternation had never been reported in the adult tyrannosaurid dentaries. Under this pattern, the half of functional teeth in a single dentition would be shed at the same time, which may hamper foraging functions. We conclude that the simple alternate patterns found in the dentary dentitions of MPC-D 107/7 represent transient condition in juvenile tyrannosaurids, suggesting ontogenetic changes in tooth replacement patterns in the tyrannosaurid dentary. Anat Rec, 302:1210-1225, 2019. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.