Dentalium
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 Top: Dentalium entalis
bottom: Dentalium tarentinum |
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Dentalia (plural of dentalium) are tooth shells or tusk shells, scaphopod molluscs of the genus Dentalium or family Dentaliidae[1].
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[edit] Native American usage
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 known in the archaeological literature, along the western coast of Canada and along the Pacific Ocean coast of the northwest USA[2] 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 form of currency.
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,[3] possibly in jewelry items.
This kind of shell is still appreciated as a decorative bead object for native costumes. The Nez Perce would pierce their noses and wear dentalia through their septums; this practice led to the current name applied to the tribe.[4]
[edit] 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."[5]
[edit] 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
[edit] References
- ^ "dentalium". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 2nd ed. 1989.
- ^ James Ruppert and John W. Bernet, Our Voices: Native Stories of Alaska and the Yukon, 2001, University of Toronto Press, 394 pages ISBN:0802084672
- ^ C. Michael Hogan, Los Osos Back Bay, The Megalithic Portal, ed. Andy Burnham (2008) [1]
- ^ Josephy, Alvin M. (1997). The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest. Houghton Mifflin Books. ISBN 0395850118. p 23.
- ^ This article incorporates content from the 1728 Cyclopaedia, a publication in the public domain.
- Powell A W B, New Zealand Mollusca, William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979 ISBN 0-00-216906-1
- Dentalium (TSN 82118). Integrated Taxonomic Information System.
