I have a few reference photos for placement of teeth on a domestic cat. Smaller animals like cats, possums, skunks, weasels, etc have VERY tiny incisors. Some are as small as a grain of rice. When you clean skulls through maceration or "slow cooking" a lot of times many in not all of the teeth will fall out. When you are ready to put the puzzle back together you may have a few problems trying to figure out just where all the pieces go. So I took a few pictures of the cat skull I recently finished cleaning just so you have a little help solving this problem.
As you can see the incisors are especially tiny. The first step is to pair up the teeth. they all [i]should[i] be identical, but each skull is an individual. and some can have weird mutations. This skull is actually missing the back 2 molars, but luckily it's one from each side, so it's hard to notice, It's also a unique specimen from a possibly older cat, as you can see one of the canines is smaller and worn down, it must have bitten into something hard, or maybe fell, but the tooth looks like it was worn a long time before it actually died.
When you put the teeth back in you want to make sure the root is the part your putting in the skull and the cap is the part sticking out. For molars and canines this is obvious, but the tiny incisors this can be tricky. You need to do this in a well lit room. The caps will be shiny from the tooth enamel, the roots will be "matte"
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As you can see the incisors are especially tiny. The first step is to pair up the teeth. they all [i]should[i] be identical, but each skull is an individual. and some can have weird mutations. This skull is actually missing the back 2 molars, but luckily it's one from each side, so it's hard to notice, It's also a unique specimen from a possibly older cat, as you can see one of the canines is smaller and worn down, it must have bitten into something hard, or maybe fell, but the tooth looks like it was worn a long time before it actually died.
When you put the teeth back in you want to make sure the root is the part your putting in the skull and the cap is the part sticking out. For molars and canines this is obvious, but the tiny incisors this can be tricky. You need to do this in a well lit room. The caps will be shiny from the tooth enamel, the roots will be "matte"
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Category Artwork (Traditional) / Animal related (non-anthro)
Species Housecat
Size 1022 x 1200px
File Size 816.2 kB
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