Dental anomalies in Euphractus sexcinctus Wagler (Mammalia: Xenarthra: Dasypodidae)

GONZALEZ RUIZ, L.R.; LADEVÈZE S.; MACPHEE, R.D.

Oklahoma

Otro; 94th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Mammalogist; 2014

Dental anomalies in Dasypodidae (Mammalia: Xenarthra) have never been thoroughly examined. For this contribution, we analyzed anomalies in 66 Euphractus sexcinctus (six-banded armadillo) specimens housed in the Department of Mammalogy, American Museum of Natural History (New York). Group 1 (n=50) consists of wild-caught specimens collected in Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Brazil. Group 2 (n=16) consists of captive specimens donated to the AMNH by the Wildlife Conservation Society (Bronx Zoo and Central Park Zoo). Euphractus sexcinctus exhibits a dentition consisting of monophyodont, homodont, and euhyupsodont molariforms. The typical dental formula 9/10 (Mf/mf), with 1st Mf in the pre maxilla. As in xenarthrans generally, the homology of molariforms to typical eutherian tribosphenic cheek teeth has not been stablished. Group 1 specimens display supernumerary teeth in the maxilla (2%) as well as the dentary (4%), whereas Group 2 specimens show supernumerary teeth in the dentary only (12.5%). Only 6% of Group 1 had missing teeth, compared to 18.75 showing tooth loss in Group 2. Two captive specimens exhibited abnormally high crows. One had normal mandibular occlusion, indicating that the tooth grew very fast and/or suffered very little wear. The other possessed an abnormal dentary, resulting in irregular occlusion and, thus, unequal attrition. Although dental anomalies were recorded in both captive and wild specimens, the proportions of those are proportionally greater in captive individuals.