loph

Noun

loph (plural lophs)

1. A ridge of enamel connecting the cusps of a molar or cheek tooth.
   • The plates are closely cemented together and in the early tooth they extend above the surface in a series of lophs. Because there are many of them that make up the whole molar, the tooth is called a polylophodont.1937, Cleveland Sylvester Simkins, History of the Human Teeth: An Introduction to Comparative Dental Anatomy, page 177
   • I include only 15 cheektooth features, although one could define a great many more in a loph-by-loph analysis.2005, Louise Emmons, “A revision of the genera of arboreal echimyidae”, in James L. Patton, Eileen A. Lacey, Philip Myers, editors, Mammalian Diversification: From Chromosomes to Phylogeography, page...