toothbearing

Toothbearing is an adjective used to describe an organism, structure, or fossil that bears teeth. Derived from the words tooth and bearing, it is chiefly a descriptive term in anatomy and paleontology rather than a fixed taxonomic category. The expression signals the presence of dentition and the anatomical elements that support it.

In vertebrate anatomy, the principal tooth-bearing elements are the jaws—primarily the maxilla and mandible in most mammals—that carry the dental crowns and roots. Other lineages have tooth-bearing plates or dental arches that fulfill the same role. The concept is also applied in paleontology to indicate specimens with preserved teeth, which are critical for determining diet and phylogeny.

Because toothbearing is a broad, descriptive term, it is typically clarified by naming the specific bones, teeth, or dental arrangements involved, such as tooth-bearing jaw bones, tooth-bearing dental plates, tooth batteries, or thecodont teeth within sockets. The term is useful for distinguishing dentate (toothed) from non-dentate structures in comparative descriptions.