Unique dentition of lungfish.

Abstract

Lungfish are a group of ancient fish, represented almost continuously in the fossil record from their first appearance in the Devonian to the present time. They have numerous unique characters in the dentition, found only among lungfish, as well as some that are shared with other groups of fish and with higher vertebrates, such as a thin layer of true enamel, instead of the enameloid found in the dentition of most fish. Unique characters include the diversity of forms of dentine in the tooth plates, as well as the organisation of the dentines and the unusual mode of continuous growth of the dentition. Their enamel is based on amelogenin formed by the ameloblasts of the dental lamina, and is mineralised by long crystals of calcium hydroxyapatite deposited in layers over the developing tooth. The different forms of dentine, which show progressive evolutionary change within the group, are based on an extracellular matrix of collagen, mineralised with calcium hydroxapatite of variable crystalline form. Cells that line the oral cavity produce the ameloblasts that are endodermal in origin, and cells that form the dental papillae are, like the other cells that secrete skeletal tissues, derived from head mesoderm, as in other vertebrates. Unique to all dipnoans is the fusion of the dental tissues to the underlying bone and the way in which bone, included within the tooth plate, remodels to permit growth in the whole dentition.