title: How many mandibles in a mammal? A note on terminology.
abstract: This paper briefly reviews the usage of the term 'mandible' in the anatomical literature on mammals, with a focus on human and veterinary anatomy. In all analysed textbooks of human anatomy and physical anthropology as well as in several veterinary anatomy textbooks, the mandible is viewed as a single (unpaired) skeletal element composed of symmetrical (left and right) halves that correspond to the ossa dentalia of comparative anatomical terminology. Other authors, however, maintain that each mammal possesses a left and a right mandible, thus equating the mammalian mandible with the os dentale. The view of the presence of two mandibles per mammal is frequently found in textbooks of comparative vertebrate anatomy. Students of anatomy and workers from neighbouring disciplines need to be aware of the inconsistent use of the term mandible to avoid misunderstandings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Hildesheim, Marienburger Platz 22, Hildesheim, Germany. uwe.kierdorf@uni-hildesheim.de
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kierdorf
mesh_terms: D000717:Anatomy, Comparative; D000818:Animals; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D006801:Humans; D008322:Mammals / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification; D008334:Mandible / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D009626:Terminology as Topic