Edentulism: Tooth Loss In Birds Occurred About 116 Million Years Ago

 Edentulism, the absence of teeth, has evolved on multiple occasions within vertebrates including birds, turtles, and a few groups of mammals such as anteaters, baleen whales and pangolins, but where early birds are concerned, the fossil record is fragmentary. A question that has intrigued biologists is whether teeth were lost in the common ancestor of all living birds or convergently in two or more independent lineages of birds.A research team using the degraded remnants of tooth genes in birds to determine when birds lost their teeth believes that teeth were lost in the common ancestor of all living birds more than 100 million years ago. read more

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