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Some dinos replaced their teeth multiple times a year

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Majungasaurus

Two Majungasaurus hunting down a Rapetosaurus. (ABelov2014 via Wikicommons under CC BY-SA 3.0)

The new teeth just kept pushing the old ones out:

The paleontologists found that the Jurassic carnivores Allosaurus and Ceratosaurus had tooth replacement rates of about 100 days, while the Cretaceous Majungasaurus had a much faster replacement rate of about 56 days. “I would have predicted from the incredible abundance of shed Majungasaurus teeth that it replaced its teeth quickly, but I couldn’t have imagined how fast,” D’Emic says. This dinosaur replaced its teeth at rates similar to herbivorous species that kept up quick turnover, and, the researchers estimate, about 14 times faster than the bone-crushing Tyrannosaurus.

But why was Majungasaurus so different from other carnivores? Previous work on theropod dinosaurs focused on the famous tyrannosaurs which replaced their teeth slowly. But tyrannosaurs’ slow rate of tooth replacement might be specialized to the species.

“With this new dataset, it looks like most dinosaurs had high replacement rates regardless of diet,” says University of British Columbia paleontologist Kirstin Brink.

Riley Black, “Flesh-Ripping Dinosaurs Replaced Their Teeth Multiple Times a Year” at Smithsonian.com

Curiously, mammal predators don’t replace teeth that way, even though sharks, reptiles, and amphibians can. One theory is:

Abigail Tucker, a professor of development and evolution at King’s College London says that there is a trade-off between the complexity of the teeth and the amount of sets the species gets. Since mammals have the ability to chew, meaning they can grind their teeth sideways (think of the movement a cow or horse makes) we have developed complex sets of teeth with multiple cusps, the bumps and mounds that define the shape of our teeth. While our pointy canine teeth (cuspids) each have only one cusp, our premolars (bicuspids) each have two cusps and our molars each have four or five cusps.

Tiffany Wen, “Will dentists help you to grow new teeth?” at BBC

What’s interesting here is that even though just regrowing teeth through life would seem like an advantage, for mammals, more complex teeth turned out to be a bigger advantage.

Note: Manatees can grow new teeth and, of course, rodent and rabbit teeth continue growing through life (but it’s the same tooth really).

Comments
Ed bogart:
what does this have to do with beaver teeth?
Beaver teeth are just another in a long, long line of biological structures your position cannot explain, scientifically.ET
November 28, 2019
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BA77
November 28, 2019 at 9:02 pm Ed,, instead of playing in the weeds of no consequence, perhaps you ought to rightly find it strange that you yourself believe in Darwinism in spite of the fact that you have exactly zero real-time scientific evidence that it is even remotely feasible?
Sorry, what does this have to do with beaver teeth?Ed George
November 28, 2019
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Ed,, instead of playing in the weeds of no consequence, perhaps you ought to rightly find it strange that you yourself believe in Darwinism in spite of the fact that you have exactly zero real-time scientific evidence that it is even remotely feasible? You should honestly ask yourself why you are so dead set to believe a lie. Especially when the consequences of denying design, and thus denying God, could potentially be so devastating for you personally.
Matthew 10:33 But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
What is your real motivation to hold such an insane position? Is it even possible for you to answer that one question honestly?bornagain77
November 28, 2019
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LoL! @ Ed bogart! I responded to your trope with facts. It isn't my fault that you ignored the response and prattled on like a desperate infant. And as far as "anti-ID" goes- that encompasses liars and the willfully ignorant. Both of which Eddie exemplify.ET
November 28, 2019
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Am I the only one who finds it strange that when I raise the fact that beavers’s teeth keep growing, on an OP that is about teeth, BA77 and ET look for some nefarious anti-ID conspiracy in this fact?Ed George
November 28, 2019
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Acartia George is just upset because his position doesn't have any mechanism capable of producing an organism with teeth. It seems that all evolutionism is capable of is producing cowardly liars and insipid trolls.ET
November 28, 2019
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BA77
From which I guess we are suppose to surmise that beaver teeth, and thus beavers themselves, are not designed?
No, you are to surmise that beaver teeth grow throughout their lives. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.Ed George
November 28, 2019
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E.G. states,
"They must keep chewing or they will grow to the point where they can result in death."
From which I guess we are suppose to surmise that beaver teeth, and thus beavers themselves, are not designed? If so, I beg to differ,
Beavers Excerpt: Beavers are air-breathing mammals which spend a great deal of time in water. For this reason they need special equipment. First, the beaver has special valves in its ears and nose. When the beaver dives below the water these valves automatically close so that no water can enter. When the animal resurfaces, the valves reopen and it breathes again. Perhaps their more amazing piece of equipment is their eyelids. If you have done any diving or snorkelling you will know that water and materials in it can irritate your eyes and wash out natural lubricants. Not only that, but your eyes do not see well under water. That is why snorkellers wear goggles. Were we original to think up this idea of goggles? Not really. God designed beavers with ‘built-in’ goggles. Their eyelids are transparent, so they can close their eyes underwater and still see extremely well. Their transparent eyelids give protection to their eyes from water-borne irritants. During winter, beavers must feed on the bark of trees they have cut and stored in the autumn, using their specially designed, self-sharpening front incisors (perhaps one of the beaver’s better known pieces of equipment). The beavers collect the young trees (usually two to five centimetres (one to two inches) in diameter) for food, cut them to suitable lengths and then transport them, by holding them in their teeth, to their underwater cache, forcing the branches into the mud at the bottom of the pond. Amazing design Which brings us to another amazing design feature. To retrieve the stored food in the winter months when ice covers the pond, the beavers may need to chew the sticks underwater. They can do this without water entering their mouths, because they have fur mouth flaps between their front incisors and their rear molar teeth, which are set considerably further back. These two folds of skin, one on each side of the mouth, meet behind the incisors and seal off the rest of the mouth. The beaver’s large paddle-shaped tail, which has a scale-like skin covering it, is used as a rudder when it swims. This is particularly important when the animal is swimming with a branch in its mouth. The tail must compensate for any uneven drag from the branch, thus the tail is often held at an angle for accurate steering. The rear feet of the beaver are large and webbed like a duck’s feet, to give the animal good swimming ability. The two inner claws of each foot have split toenails, which the beaver uses as a comb to groom itself and oil its fur. Beavers use their smaller, unwebbed front paws to carry mud and other materials, and to dig canals which they use as a means of transporting wood and also as a means of quick escape from predators. The fur of the beaver must be oiled to prevent water reaching the animal’s skin. The oil is provided from two large oil glands. They are filled with a rich, thick, deep yellow oily liquid, which the beaver spreads on its fur for water-proofing. This, along with its two layers of fur, are so effective that water rarely reaches the skin. A layer of fat beneath the skin gives further protection against the cold. A beaver can swim submerged for perhaps 800 metres (a half-mile) or more. Most air-breathing creatures would be adversely affected by lack of oxygen to the brain. The beaver has special equipment to compensate for this need. Large lungs and liver allow for the storage of more air and oxygenated blood. In addition, a beaver’s heart beats more slowly when it dives, in order to conserve oxygen, and the blood is restricted to the animal’s extremities while the vital supply to the brain remains normal.... Etc.. etc.. https://answersingenesis.org/mammals/beavers/
Also of note to the intelligent design of Beaver teeth in particular,
Beavers Have Metal Teeth - 2018 Beavers have another trick up their pelts though: their enamel. If you’ve ever seen a beaver’s teeth you’ll know that they appear pretty orange. This is because, whereas other rodents have magnesium in their tooth enamel, beavers have iron. So beavers have orange teeth for the same reason we have red blood. The iron causes the orange colouring in beavers’ teeth, makes the teeth stronger against mechanical stress, and makes them more resistant to acid. https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/did-you-know/beavers-have-metal-teeth
To more directly prove that the 'bottom up' materialistic explanations of Darwinian evolution cannot possibly explain beaver teeth, or any other teeth for that matter, I refer to this little piece of trivia,
DNA doesn’t even tell teeth what they should look like - April 3, 2014 Excerpt: A friend writes to mention a mouse experiment where developing tooth buds were moved so that the incisors and the molars were switched. The tooth buds became the tooth appropriate to the switched location, not the original one, in direct contrast to what we would expect from a genecentric view. https://uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/dna-doesnt-even-tell-teeth-what-they-should-look-like/
Simply put, the particular form that any organism, or any part of any organism, may take simply is not reducible to the reductive materialistic explanations of Darwinian evolution. Period!
Darwinism vs Biological Form - video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyNzNPgjM4w
In other words, with their reductive materialistic framework, Darwinists are now shown to not even be on the correct theoretical framework in order to properly understand life in the first place:
Darwinian Materialism vs. Quantum Biology – Part II - video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSig2CsjKbg
bornagain77
November 28, 2019
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Or this? https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81Uf-WcxRoL._SL1500_.jpgEd George
November 28, 2019
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Or this? http://www.theoccultsection.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/The-Far-Side-Ghost-Bean-Dip.jpgEd George
November 28, 2019
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Is this better? https://i.pinimg.com/originals/40/96/ed/4096edc31815b6b124af635d8e48b15b.jpgEd George
November 28, 2019
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No, I said a great "Far Side" comic, not an ignorant attempt at ridicule. But I understand that you don't know the difference.ET
November 28, 2019
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ET
But it would make for a great “Far Side” comic.
Like this one? http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_9KYA3NQiJ60/SFEHumTc5FI/AAAAAAAAAew/ogmW9B5dvM0/s320/creationism.pngEd George
November 28, 2019
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Ed George:
They must keep chewing or they will grow to the point where they can result in death.
They can take time off. And if their teeth didn't continually grow then they would nub out and the individual would die. Gumming at nuts, trees and branches will only hasten that death. But it would make for a great "Far Side" comic. :cool:ET
November 28, 2019
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Beavers may not constantly replace their teeth, but they do continuously grow, as do other rodents. They must keep chewing or they will grow to the point where they can result in death.Ed George
November 28, 2019
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