Elephants do have teeth, but their dental anatomy is one of the most highly specialized and unique in the animal kingdom. The confusion often arises because their most visible dental features are the iconic tusks, which are actually a form of tooth, while the teeth they use for eating are hidden deep within the mouth. An elephant’s mouth contains two distinct types of dental structures: the continuously growing tusks and the enormous, plate-like molars. This unique arrangement is a necessary adaptation that allows these massive herbivores to survive on a diet of tough, fibrous vegetation.
Tusks: Modified Incisors
Tusks are the most recognizable feature of an elephant, yet they are biologically categorized as elongated second upper incisor teeth. These structures begin growing relatively early in a calf’s life, replacing the small, deciduous milk tusks around six to twelve months of age. Once they emerge, they continue to grow outward throughout the elephant’s entire lifespan.
The composition of a tusk is primarily dentine, a hard, calcified tissue that forms the bulk of the tooth and is commonly known as ivory. A thin layer of cementum covers the dentine and helps anchor the tusk within the bony socket of the skull, where about one-third remains embedded. When a tusk first emerges, it has a small cap of enamel, but this layer quickly wears off due to constant use.
Tusks serve multiple purposes, acting as versatile tools for daily life. Because the tusk contains a pulp cavity filled with nerves and blood vessels, it is living tissue, and elephants often show a preference for one tusk over the other, similar to being left or right-handed. They use tusks for:
- Digging for water and mineral-rich salt licks.
- Stripping bark from trees.
- Lifting heavy objects.
- Marking territories by gouging trees and the ground.
Molars: The Grinding Teeth
Separate from the tusks, the elephant’s chewing teeth are the molars, positioned far back in the jaw. These enormous, plate-like structures are perfectly adapted for grinding tough plant matter like grasses, bark, and leaves. An elephant typically has only four molars in use: one large tooth in each quadrant of the jaw.
The molars are specialized for a herbivorous diet, featuring numerous parallel ridges of hard enamel separated by softer cementum and dentine. When an elephant chews, the enamel ridges act like a rasp, effectively crushing and shredding the fibrous vegetation. This unique design allows the elephant to move its jaw in a forward-and-backward motion, which is more efficient for pulverizing food than the side-to-side motion common in other herbivores. The largest molars can measure up to a foot long and weigh over ten pounds.
The Horizontal Tooth Replacement Cycle
Elephants possess a unique dental mechanism known as horizontal tooth replacement. In most animals, permanent teeth grow vertically to push out deciduous teeth. However, an elephant’s molars are replaced horizontally, moving forward like a conveyor belt.
Throughout its life, an elephant will develop and use only six sets of molars, designated M1 through M6. A new, larger molar forms at the back of the jaw and slowly progresses forward to take the place of the old, worn-out tooth ahead of it. As the front molar is pushed forward, it eventually breaks up and falls out of the jaw.
Each successive molar set is larger and lasts for a longer period than the one before it, necessary to sustain the elephant’s massive body over time. The final, sixth set of molars typically begins to emerge around the age of 30. Once this final set of molars wears down completely, the elephant can no longer effectively chew the tough vegetation required for survival, which is a leading cause of death for elderly elephants in the wild.
Species Variation in Dental Structure
The two major elephant species, African and Asian, display distinct differences in their dental anatomy, reflecting their evolutionary paths and dietary habits. The most visible difference lies in the tusks, specifically their presence in females. Both male and female African elephants, belonging to the genus Loxodonta, typically possess tusks, which are generally large in both sexes.
In contrast, among Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), it is primarily the males that grow large tusks. Many female Asian elephants either lack tusks entirely or develop only small, short tusks called “tushes” that barely protrude from the lip.
Another key distinction is found in the structure of the molars, specifically the pattern of the enamel ridges on the chewing surface. African elephant molars feature a diamond-shaped or sloping pattern of ridges, a characteristic reflected in their genus name, Loxodonta, which means “sloping tooth”. Asian elephant molars, adapted for a diet that generally includes more grass, display a more compressed pattern of numerous parallel or crinkled loop-shaped ridges.