Teeth are a model system for integrating developmental genomics, functional morphology, and evolution. We are at the cusp of being able to address many open issues in comparative tooth biology, and we outline several of these newly tractable and exciting research directions. Like never before, technological advances and methodological approaches are allowing us to investigate the developmental machinery of vertebrates and discover both conserved and excitingly novel mechanisms of diversification. Additionally, studies of the great diversity of soft tissues, replacement teeth, and non-trophic functions of teeth are providing new insights into dental diversity. Finally, we highlight several emerging model groups of organisms that are at the forefront of increasing our appreciation of the mechanisms underlying tooth diversification.

中文翻译：

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比较牙齿生物学的巨大挑战

牙齿是整合发育基因组学、功能形态学和进化的模型系统。我们正处于能够解决比较牙齿生物学中许多悬而未决的问题的风口浪尖，我们概述了其中几个新的易于处理且令人兴奋的研究方向。技术进步和方法论前所未有地使我们能够研究脊椎动物的发育机制，并发现保守的和令人兴奋的新颖的多样化机制。此外，对软组织、替换牙齿和牙齿非营养功能的多样性的研究为牙齿多样性提供了新的见解。最后，我们强调了几个新兴的生物模型组，它们处于提高我们对牙齿多样化背后机制的认识的最前沿。