The oldest known occurrence of tooth decay has been discovered in a 275-million-year-old reptile fossil. This find predates the second oldest known example by about 200 million years. The newly discovered tooth infection in Labidosaurus hamatus may have been the result of adapting to life on land and the new sources of food, especially the development of a plant-based diet. Lead researcher Robert Reisz, a biologist at the University of Toronto Mississauga, and his colleagues studied several specimens of L. hamatus. Looking at the bones with CT scans, they found signs of a massive infection which resulted in the loss of teeth, an abscess and internal loss of bone tissue. Reisz and his colleagues said their findings suggest that as this reptile lost the ability to replace teeth - an adaptation to life on land - the likelihood of jaw infections as a result of tooth damage was greatly increased.
-compiled by Faiza Arif
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