Dental Anomalies and Cranio-Dental Ontogeny in a Captive Wild Boar Population From France

Abstract

Dental anomalies are frequent in boars and pigs, and they generally affect the first premolar loci. The prevalence of these dental anomalies was investigated in a large number of populations around the world. These studies mainly focused on the influence of domestication, size, sexual dimorphism or food hardness on these anomalies. However, they rarely considered ontogenetic aspects, while these are crucial for understanding their aetiology during animal growth and how the dental row-jaw complex is affected. Here, we studied the incidence of missing first upper and lower premolars in a French population of captive wild boars to discuss the functional and developmental reasons for missing teeth and to assess the impact of missing teeth on the growth of the dental row-jaw complex. Using the CT-scan data of the cranium and mandible of 24 wild boars investigated six times each during their growth, and presenting a balanced sex ratio, we recorded the number of missing teeth. We then quantified the shape of the upper and lower jaws using 3D geometric morphometrics. We found a similar prevalence of missing first premolar (37.5%) between the upper and the lower jaws, which is higher than the frequencies observed in most continental populations of wild boars. The increasing number of anomalies during ontogeny suggests a relaxed constraint on the dentition associated with a different feeding behaviour in captivity. The absence of first premolars does not appear to be associated with size variation or sexual dimorphism, nor does it affect the place of the dentition within the jaw, the latter being more influenced by the dimorphic shape of the canines and the timing of dental eruption.