Modelización con Elementos Finitos de un Diente Referido al Género Giganotosaurus (Theropoda: Carcharodontosauridae)

G.V. MAZZETTA; R.E. BLANCO; A.P. CISILINO

AMEGHINIANA

Asociación Paleontológica Argentina

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2004 vol. 41 p. 619 - 626

0002-7014

A quantitative study of the biomechanical design of a dinosaur tooth was carried out for the first time. In doing so, an isolated tooth crown referred to the carnivorous theropod Giganotosaurus(MUCPv-52) was subjected to computerised tomography to obtain a series of transaxial scan images separated by 1.5 mm intervals. This non-invasive technique allows the three-dimensional reconstruction of the geometry corresponding to the biological structure considered, which provides an appropriate basis for finite element modelling (FEM). Mathematical approaches as FEM offer unparalleled precision in assessment of the stress environment in such structuresas teeth, which  in vivo are subjected to varying regimes of stress and strain. The model of the tooth crown referred to Giganotosaurus was meshed creating four-noded tetrahedral elements. The loading conditions settled on the crown allow to simulate a static bite vertically applied on a still prey, and on a prey exerting a pull perpendicular to the long axis of the tooth. The highest principal stresses during the bite were produced at the middle one-third of the anterolabial (ten-sile ones), and posterolingual (compressive ones) surfaces of the tooth crown. When the load exerted by the pull of an hypothetical prey was also considered, the stress distribution change in a predictable way, with the highest tensile magnitudes at the posterior side of the crown. In such situation, the tooth is capable to withstand pulls up to 10 kN.