Enamel thickness of rooted and rootless microtine molars

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Abstract
Of the 10 genera of North American microtines, the molars of 4 become rooted in adults and thus do not grow continuously; the molars of the remaining 6 do not develop true roots and grow throughout the life of the animal. Continuously growing molars lengthen rapidly, but rooted molars do not. We hypothesize that the life of the molars in voles with rooted molars is increased by tooth enamel that is thicker than in voles with continuously growing molars. Measurements of the enamel thickness in Microtus and Clethrionomys support this hypothesis.

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