#slothmonday Nº 3

The teeth of sloths

Another anatomical feature of sloths (and of xenarthrans in general) is the lack of incisives. Moreover, the teeth they have are hard to ascribe to those of other placentals, ie, they cannot be called canines, premolars and molars. For that reason, the teeth of sloths are called molariforms and they typically have 5 in the upper jaw and 4 in the lower jaw.

However, in several species the most anterior teeth are modified in such a way that they resemble canines and are consequently called caniniforms. It is interesting to note that the upper caniniform occludes before the lower caniniform, differently to what happens in true canines.

Lestodon is the taxon that shows the largest caniniforms