Dentalium

Taxobox
name = "Dentalium"


image_caption = Top: "Dentalium entalis"
bottom: "Dentalium tarentinum"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = Scaphopoda
ordo = Dentaliida
familia = Dentaliidae
genus = "Dentalium"
genus_authority = Linnaeus, 1758
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision = See text.

Dentalia (plural of "dentalium") are tooth shells or tusk shells, scaphopod molluscs of the genus "Dentalium" or family Dentaliidae [OED|dentalium] .

Native American use

The word "dentalium" is no longer only a scientific term used by biologists to identify a mollusk genus, but is used by archeologists, anthropologists and others. The use of these shells by Amerindians is well-known in the archaeological literature, along the western coast of Canada and along the Pacific Ocean coast of the northwest USA [James Ruppert and John W. Bernet, "Our Voices: Native Stories of Alaska and the Yukon", 2001, University of Toronto Press, 394 pages ISBN:0802084672] extending southward to Southern California.

Dentalium shells were historically harvested from deep waters around the Pacific Northwest coast of North America, because they were highly valued by First Nations peoples as a an international trade item. Peoples of the Northwest Pacific Coast would trade dentalium into the Great Plains, Great Basin, Central Canada, Northern Plateau and Alaska for items including many foods, decorative materials, dyes, hides, Macaw feathers coming from Central America, turquoise from the Southwest, as well as many other items.

On the California Central Coast, for example, "Dentalium neohexagonium" has been recovered from prehistoric habitation sites of the Chumash who apparently used these shells as tubes, [C. Michael Hogan, "Los Osos Back Bay", The Megalithic Portal, ed. Andy Burnham (2008) [http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=18353] ] possibly in jewelry items.

This kind of shell is still appreciated as a decorative bead object for native regalia. The Nez Perce would pierce their noses and wear dentalia through their septums; this practice led to the current name applied to the tribe. [Josephy, Alvin M. (1997). " [http://books.google.com/books?id=D1Ffhzz0UOkC The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest] ". Houghton Mifflin Books. ISBN 0395850118. p 23.]

Modern usage

In pre-modern medicine, dentalium was considered an excellent alkali, and apothecaries would pulverize dentalium for use in several preparations. The genuine dentalium used for this purpose, was described by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort in London in the 1700s, as being "of a tubular, or conical form, about 3 inches long; of a shining, greenish white; hollow; light, and divided lengthwise by parallel lines, running from top to bottom. It is about the thickness of a feather, and bears some resemblance to a canine tooth." However, it was considered at that time to be very rare, and in lieu of that, was usually substituted by a multi-colored shell found in the sand where the tide had fallen; this shell was not channeled, or fluted like dentalium. [1728] The species to which the writer was referring must have been either "Dentalium elephantinum" or "Dentalium aprinum", both of which are large and greenish, and live in the Indo-Pacific zone.

Species

* "Dentalium agassizi" Pilsbry and Sharp, 1897 stained tuskshell
* "Dentalium americanum" Chenu, 1843 American tuskshell
* "Dentalium antillarum" D'Orbigny, 1842
* "Dentalium bartletti" Henderson, 1920
* "Dentalium calamus" Dall, 1889
* "Dentalium callipeplum" Dall, 1889
* "Dentalium callithrix" Dall, 1889
* "Dentalium carduum" Dall, 1889
* "Dentalium ceratum" (Dall, 1881)
* "Dentalium circumcinctum" Watson, 1879
* "Dentalium dalli" Pilsbry and Sharp, 1897
* "Dentalium diarrhox" Watson, 1879
* "Dentalium didymum" Watson, 1879
* "Dentalium eboreum" Conrad, 1846
* "Dentalium ecostatum" T W Kirk, 1880
* "Dentalium ensiculus" Jeffereys, 1877
* "Dentalium entale entale" (Linnaeus, 1758)
* "Dentalium entale stimpsoni" (Henderson, 1920)
* "Dentalium entale" Linnaeus, 1758
* "Dentalium floridense" J. B. Henderson, 1920
* "Dentalium glaucarena" Dell, 1953
* "Dentalium gouldii" Dall, 1889 gould tuskshell
* "Dentalium inversum" Deshayes, 1825
* "Dentalium laqueatum" A. E. Verrill, 1885 reticulate tuskshell
* "Dentalium liodon" Pilsbry and Sharp, 1897
* "Dentalium meridionale" Pilsbry and Sharp, 1897
* "Dentalium nanum" Hutton, 1873
* "Dentalium neohexagonum" Sharp and Pilsbry, 1897 hexagon tuskshell
* "Dentalium occidentale" Stimpson, 1851
* "Dentalium ophiodon" Dall, 1881
* "Dentalium perlongum" Dall, 1881
* "Dentalium pilsbryi" Rehder, 1942
* "Dentalium pretiosum" Sowerby, 1860
* "Dentalium rebeccaense" Henderson, 1920
* "Dentalium rectius" Carpenter, 1864
* "Dentalium semistriolatum" Guilding, 1834
* "Dentalium sowerbyi" Guilding, 1834
* "Dentalium stenochizum" Pilsbry and Sharp, 1897
* "Dentalium suteri" Emerson, 1954
* "Dentalium taphrium" Dall, 1889
* "Dentalium texasianum" Philippi, 1848
* "Dentalium tiwhana" Dell, 1953
* "Dentalium tubulatum" Henderson, 1920
* "Dentalium vallicolens" Raymond, 1904 trench tuskshell
* "Dentalium vitreum" M. Sars, 1851
* "Dentalium vulgare" da Costa, 1778
* "Dentalium zelandicum" Sowerby, 1860

References

* Powell A W B, "New Zealand Mollusca", William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979 ISBN 0-00-216906-1
*
* "Compendium of Seashells" by R. Tucker Abbott and S. Peter Dance, 1982, Dutton, New York, ISBN: 0-525-93269-0