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Dental anomalies suggest an evolutionary trend in the dentition of wolverine (Gulo gulo)

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Abstract

In mammals, congenital dental anomalies likely represent an evolutionary trend in the reduction of teeth (oligodonty) from the primitive dental formula. We quantified variation in the number of teeth from 421 wolverine (Gulo gulo) from northwestern Canada, focusing on polydonty (additional teeth), congenital oligodonty, and tooth rotation (misalignment). We predicted that oligodonty may be an evolutionary consequence of a previously reported increase in size of carnassial teeth since the Pleistocene. We also predicted that wolverine with missing or rotated teeth had smaller dental arcades than those without these anomalies. Oligodonty was observed in 42 wolverines (10 %), with the most cases involving the P1 or P1 (56 %) and P2 or P2 (32 %). We observed rotated teeth in 43 % of wolverines; virtually all of the rotated teeth we observed were P2 or P2. The frequency of oligodonty or rotated teeth was strikingly similar between the sexes. Both oligodonty and rotated teeth were observed more frequently in the mandibular than the maxillary toothrows. Most wolverine (67 %) with oligodonty were missing teeth unilaterally; in contrast, most animals with rotated teeth exhibited bilateralism (86 %). Condylobasal length and most measures of the dental arcade did not differ between wolverine with or without missing or rotated teeth; however, we found that skulls with missing or rotated teeth had narrower palate breadth ratios. Our data suggest that there may be an evolutionary trend in the loss of teeth at the anterior of the toothrows of wolverines, which may be a result of narrower dental arcades and larger carnassial teeth. Wolverine have a hypercarnivorous diet, and selection may be toward optimizing those teeth that contribute to securing and processing food (i.e., canine and carnassial teeth), and against those that likely do not contribute substantially to increasing fitness and survival, such as the P1/P1 and P2/P2.

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Acknowledgments

Four of the authors (GR, DAB, ERH, and AvE) conducted this work as a part of a senior undergraduate course in mammalogy at the University of Alberta. We thank the Yukon fur trappers that voluntarily submitted wolverine carcasses for examination; without their continued interest in the well-being of wildlife on their traplines, this project would not have been possible. René Rivard is thanked for superbly processing the skulls. Jessica Heath kindly contributed the radiographs. Mattson’s Laboratory conducted the cementum analyses. Funding was provided by the Yukon Department of Environment, Laurentian University, and Environment Canada’s Habitat Stewardship Program. Cino Pertoldi and two anonymous reviewers kindly provided thoughtful comments that improved the paper.

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Correspondence to Thomas S. Jung.

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Communicated by: Cino Pertoldi

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Jung, T.S., Rivest, G., Blakeburn, D.A. et al. Dental anomalies suggest an evolutionary trend in the dentition of wolverine (Gulo gulo). Mamm Res 61, 361–366 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-016-0284-y

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