Science has made substantial progress since Aristotle wrote (apparently without doing much research) that women have fewer teeth than men. The sheer volume of published research on teeth since may lead some to conclude that we have over-compensated for Aristotle's ignorance. Yet teeth merit all this attention because of their tremendous biological importance — not to mention the dreadful pain they can cause. Dental development and function are the focus of much clinical attention. And for evolutionary biologists, teeth are invaluable sources of information about taxonomy, phylogeny and many other aspects of animal biology.
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