Moeritherium chehbeurameuri

Tabuce, Rodolphe, Delmer, Cyrille & Gheerbrant, Emmanuel, 2007, Evolution of the tooth enamel microstructure in the earliest proboscideans (Mammalia), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 149 (4), pp. 611-628 : 616

MOERITHERIUM CHEHBEURAMEURI

In a vertical section of a lower molar, the Schmelzmuster is two-layered with radial enamel in the outer zone underlain by HSB in the inner two thirds ( Fig. 3A ). HSB are thick, relatively straight, and without bifurcation; each transversally directed band is composed of 15–25 prisms of 5–7 µm in diameter. At the prism level, Moeritherium shows the same zonation as Phosphatherium : a very thin layer of prismless enamel in the outermost part, thin zones of round prisms near both the OES and EDJ, and thick intermediate zones of opened prisms showing a keyhole pattern.

Figures

Figure 3. A, Moeritherium chehbeurameuri, late–middle Eocene, Bir El Ater, Algeria; vertical section of a lower molar showing a two-layered Schmelzmuster with radial enamel in the outer zone underlain by Hunter-Schreger bands (HSB) in the inner two thirds; EDJ, enamel dentine junction. B, Daouitherium rebouli, earliest Eocene, Ouled Abdoun Basin, Morocco; horizontal section of a lower molar with open-prism cross sections and an important amount of interprismatic matrix (IPM). C, vertical section of a lower molar of the same species showing HSB that reach the outer enamel surface (OES).