This kind of wear can result without damage or loss of teeth. Just as some
people's teeth don't line up properly and they require dental attention, so
some animals teeth are also poorly aligned. I can't remember ever having to
treat cattle with this problem (although that probably says more about the
relative value and shorter lifespans of cattle) but horses frequently have
teeth rasped to prevent them becoming uneven and causing damage or leading
to periodontitis. I afarid I don't have any cattle pathology books to hand
but details of malalignment and abnormal attrition in horses can be found
in
Mair T, Love S, Schumacher J and Watson E. (1999)"Equine Medicine, Surgery
and Reproduction" Saunders: London.
Hope that's of some use,
Simon McGrory.
On May 6 2005, Fay Worley wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I have a cattle molar from an early Iron Age site in Oxfordshire (UK)
> with a strange wear pattern. Although generally the tooth is worn to
> stage J (Grant 1982) the ancillary cusp has been completely worn away at
> a very steep angle from the middle of the second cusp. It does look like
> wear rather than a chop from striations on the exposed surface. Does
> anyone have any suggestions for why the tooth may be worn in this way?
>
>
> Thanks
>
> Fay Worley
>
>
> --
> -------------------------------------
> Fay Worley
> PhD Research
> Department of Archaeological Sciences
> University of Bradford, BD7 1DP.
> [log in to unmask]
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