Tooth injury? This can be caused by 500 million years old fish

Have you ever wondered why our toothache is so sensitive or even cold drinks? This can be because they first developed for a very different purpose compared to chewing half a billion years ago, a study suggested on Wednesday.

Accurate origin of teeth – and for whom they were for long -time scientists have proved elusive.

Their evolutionary pioneers are considered difficult structures called Odontods which were first seen on the outsider of the early fish, not about 500 million years ago, not in the mouth but about 500 million years ago.

Even today, sharks, stingres and catfish are covered in micro teeth that make their skin rough as sandpaper.

There are many principles of why these Odontods appeared for the first time, in which they were protected against predators, helped movement through water or stored minerals.

But the new study published in the Nature Journal supports the hypothesis that they were originally used as sensory organs that broadcast the nerves to sensations.

First, Yara Haridi, the lead author of the study, was also not trying to hunt the origin of teeth.

Instead, the postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago was investigating another major question, surprising the field of peliyntology: what is the oldest fossil of an animal with a backbone?

Haridi asked museums across the United States to send its hundreds of vertebral samples – some so small they can fit on the tip of a toothpick – so that they can analyze them using a CT scanner.

He began to focus on the dentine, the inner layer of teeth that sends sensory information to the veins in the pulp.

Things get messed up

A fossil from a Cambrian period called Anatolepis seemed to be the answer she was looking for. Its exoskeleton contains holes under the odontods, which are called ducts that may indicate that they include dentine once.

This has earlier inspired the pelionutologist to believe that Anatolepis was the first known fish in history.

But when Haridi compared it to other samples he had scanned, he found that the ducts looked like a very sensory organs, called the SENSICIL of Arthropods, a group of animals that consist of crustacean and insects.

Therefore, the powerful Anatolepis was demoted to the post of a wise.

For modern arthropods such as crabs, scorpions and spiders, the sensilla is used to see temperatures, vibrations, and even odors.

How little these features have changed over time, it shows that they have been serving these similar tasks for half a billion years.

Researchers stated that they have found “striking” similarities between these characteristics in Anatolepis and vertebral fish since about 465 million years ago.

“We conducted experiments on modern fish, which confirmed the presence of nerves in catfish, sharks and skates,” Haridi told AFP.

This suggests that “Odontods’ tooth tissue outside the mouth may be sensitive – and perhaps there were probably also Odontods,” he said.

“Arthropods and early vertebrae independently develop sensory solutions similar to the same biological and ecological problems.”

Neil Shubin, senior study writer at the University of Chicago, also said that these primitive animals have developed in “a very acute hunter environment”.

Shubin said in a statement, “It would be very important to be able to feel the properties of water around him.”

Haridi explained that over time, the fish developed jaws and “having pointed structures near their mouth became beneficial.

He said, “A little fish with some fish with the jaw was a sharp odontods on the edge of the mouth and then eventually some straight in the mouth,” he said.

“A toothache is actually an ancient sensory feature that may help our fish ancestors survive!”

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