Heterodont Puns

I know "more heterodont" is a misnomer, as you are either heterodont or homodont. But I think the wording illustrates the point of my question.

Synapsids, and especially Mammals are heterodont, they have clearly differentiated teeth: usually incisors, canines, premolars and molars. And that trend seems to have started with early Synapsids. However, what bugs me more is the extreme diversity of teeth that we find in them. Look at Mammals: we have rodents with square incisors that keep growing, elephants with also big tusks made from incisors, walrus with big tusks but made from canines, a lot of predators like cats and dogs with big fangs made from canines, even herbivores like the water deer with canine fangs, whatever the hell hippopothamus teeth are, lots of ruminants with grinding molars, Southamerican vampires with sharp fangs made out of incisors... you get my idea.

But when you go to Reptiles, sure there are a few Reptiles that really differentiated their teeth like some snake's fangs. Or Reptiles that don't possess teeth and have beaks instead like turtles and birds. I'm using the term "Reptiles" as monophyletic, that's why I'm including birds (assume I'm saying Diapsids instead of Reptiles). But even before the lineage that gave birds lost their teeth, those theropod dinosaurs were pretty homodont too. In any case, most Reptiles are homodont, they don't usually have differentiated teeth and they tend to have the same function.

Now I know things mutate randomly and if they are not strictly necessary, they are not necessarily favored by natural selection, therefore Reptiles are doing good enough with their low variety of teeth and I get that. However, why Mammals display so much variation between species unlike Reptiles in this particular case of teeth? Both Mammals and Reptiles have had to adapt to a lot of niches throughout the history of life, both have a lot of biodiversity and had to morphologically adapt a lot as an answer to their respective selective pressures, they all have evolved a lot. But when it comes to the variety of teeth between species within the same class, it seems it's mostly only Mammals that had experienced such variability. It's not just the heterodont condition within a single mouth what draws my attention, but that, in Mammals, when you go from species to species, there's a world of difference between them, like the examples I mentioned above (you go from rodents, to elephants, to bats, to primates, and it's all extremel

Do your worst!

For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.

I said "hey look, an escaPEA"

No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!

Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂

It really does, I swear!

I'm surprised it hasn't decade.

They’re on standbi

Buenosdillas

Pilot on me!!

Dad jokes are supposed to be jokes you can tell a kid and they will understand it and find it funny.

This sub is mostly just NSFW puns now.

If it needs a NSFW tag it's not a dad joke. There should just be a NSFW puns subreddit for that.

Edit* I'm not replying any longer and turning off notifications but to all those that say "no one cares", there sure are a lot of you arguing about it. Maybe I'm wrong but you people don't need to be rude about it. If you really don't care, don't comment.

When I got home, they were still there.

What did 0 say to 8 ?

" Nice Belt "

So What did 3 say to 8 ?

" Hey, you two stop making out "

I won't be doing that today!

You take away their little brooms

This morning, my 4 year old daughter.

Daughter: I'm hungry

Me: nerves building, smile widening

Me: Hi hungry, I'm dad.

She had no idea what was going on but I finally did it.

Thank you all for listening.

There hasn't been a post all year!

[Removed]

Why

It’s pronounced “Noel.”

After all his first name is No-vac

What, then, is Chinese rap?

Edit:

Notable mentions from the comments:

• Spanish/Swedish/Swiss/Serbian hits

• French/Finnish art

• Country/Canadian rap

• Chinese/Country/Canadian rock

• Turkish/Tunisian/Taiwanese rap

There hasn't been a single post this year!

(Happy 2022 from New Zealand)

Nothing, it just waved

Bob

So that I could frequently say, "I am going to walk 5 miles now."

Edit: My most popular post on Reddit! 😀 Thank you for the awards.

Just to clarify, 12345678

Me grabbing a soda from my (what I thought was) half full 12pk...

Notices there's only 2;

Me: "Awe man... This is a damn bird box!" Her: "What the hell does that mean?!" Me: (Pulls both cans out & shows them to her) "It's only got Toucans."

I'm not ashamed to admit the look on her face was glorious.

I was just sitting there doing nothing.