The molars or molar teeth are large, flat teeth at the back of the mouth. They are more developed in mammals. They are used primarily to grind food during chewing. The name molar derives from Latin, molaris dens, meaning "millstone tooth", from mola, millstone and dens, tooth. Molars show a great deal of diversity in size and shape across mammal groups. The third molar of humans is sometimes vestigial.
Human anatomy
In humans, the molar teeth have either four or five cusps. Adult humans have 12 molars, in four groups of three at the back of the mouth. The third, rearmost molar in each group is called a wisdom tooth. It is the last tooth to appear, breaking through the front of the gum at about the age of 20, although this varies among individuals and populations, and in many cases the tooth is missing.
The human mouth contains upper (maxillary) and lower (mandibular) molars. They are: maxillary first molar, maxillary second molar, maxillary third molar, mandibular first molar, mandibular second molar, and mandibular third molar.
Mammal evolution
In mammals, the crown of the molars and premolars is folded into a wide range of complex shapes. The basic elements of the crown are the more or less conical projections called cusps and the valleys that separate them. The cusps contain both dentine and enamel, whereas minor projections on the crown, called crenulations, are the result of different enamel thickness. Cusps are occasionally joined to form ridges and expanded to form crests. Cingula are often incomplete ridges that pass around the base of the crown.
Mammalian, multicusped cheek teeth probably evolved from single-cusped teeth in synapsids, although the diversity of therapsid molar patterns and the complexity in the molars of the earliest mammals make determining how this happened impossible. According to the widely accepted "differentiation theory", additional cusps have arisen by budding or outgrowth from the crown, while the rivalling "concrescence theory" instead proposes that complex teeth evolved by the clustering of originally separate conical teeth. Therian mammals (placentals and marsupials) are generally agreed to have evolved from an ancestor with tribosphenic cheek teeth, with three main cusps arranged in a triangle.
Morphology
Each major cusp on an upper molar is called a cone and is identified by a prefix dependent on its relative location on the tooth: proto-, para-, meta-, hypo-, and ento-. Suffixes are added to these names: -id is added to cusps on a lower molar (e.g., protoconid); -ule to a minor cusp (e.g., protoconulid). A shelf-like ridge on the lower part of the crown (on an upper molar) is called a cingulum; the same feature on the lower molar a cingulid, and a minor cusp on these, for example, a cingular cuspule or conulid.
Tribosphenic
The design that is considered one of the most important characteristics of therian mammals is called a tribosphenic molar. Among living mammals, the tribosphenic tooth is found in most insectivorous mammals as well as young platypuses, even though adults platypuses are toothless.
In tribosphenic teeth, the lower molar is divided into two regions: the three-cusped trigonid, or shearing end, and the talonid, or crushing heel. In modern tribosphenic molars, the trigonid is towards the front of the jaw and the talonid is towards the rear. The trigonid is defined by three large cusps: the protoconid is on the buccal/labial (cheek) side of the tooth, while the anterior paraconid and posterior metaconid are on the lingual (tongue) side.
Upper molars look like three-pointed mountain ranges, with their features mirrored from the lower molars. The protocone cusp is on the lingual side of the tooth, while the anterior paracone and posterior metacone are on the buccal side. The protocone of the upper molar and talonid basin of the lower molar mesh together as a crushing system similar to a mortar and pestle.
Tribosphenic molars were present in the direct ancestors of all three living mammal groups, but it was most likely not ancestral to mammals as a whole. Many paleontologists argue that it developed independently in monotremes (from australosphenidans), rather than being inherited from a common ancestor that they share with marsupials and placentals (from boreosphenidans); this idea still has some critics. For example, the dentition of the Early Cretaceous monotreme Steropodon is similar to those of Peramus and dryolestoids, which suggests that monotremes are related to some pre-tribosphenic mammals, but, on the other hand, the status of neither of these two groups is well-established.