Dimetrodon had serrated teeth! Why is this news?

Try googling “Dimetrodon serrated” and you’ll get several pages of fresh-off-the-presses news about how exciting and important this new find is by Brink and Reisz (2014). Unfortunately, this is old news. Serrations on Dimetrodon teeth have been known for decades. The photo at left is from a 2008 blog.

What’s more exciting that finding serrations on a Dimetrodon tooth is witnessing the publicity machine whirling at Nature.com, the publisher of the article. It’s truly amazing.

Brian Switek writing for National Geographic online summarized the paper noting that the big Dimetrodon was eating the big prey items including: “pinheaded protomammals called caseids” and “amphibians called diadectids.” We trashed the caseid/synapsid connection here. And the amphibian/diadectid connection here. Such old data from a respected news outlet takes us back to tail-dragging dino days.

From the abstract
“Paleozoic sphenacodontid synapsids are the oldest known fully terrestrial apex predators. Dimetrodon and other sphenacodontids are the first terrestrial vertebrates to have strong heterodonty, massive skulls and well-developed labio-lingually compressed and recurved teeth with mesial and distal cutting edges (carinae). Here we reveal that the dentition of Dimetrodon and other sphenacodontids is diverse. Tooth morphology includes simple carinae with smooth cutting edges and elaborate enamel features, including the first occurrence of cusps and true denticles (ziphodonty) in the fossil record. A time-calibrated phylogenetic analysis indicates that changes in dental morphology occur in the absence of any significant changes in skull morphology, suggesting that the morphological change is associated with changes in feeding style and trophic interactions in these ecosystems. In addition, the available evidence indicates that ziphodonty evolved for the first time in the largest known species of the genus Dimetrodon and independently from the ziphodont teeth observed in some therapsids.”

What is intriguing is all the fuss about Dimetrodon grandis and D. limbatus having the oldest terrestrial serrations on the planet (that is, according to the headlines), when according to the Brink and Reisz charts, generic “therapsids” and Secodontosaurus had serrations earlier, at least according to their ghost lineages (Fig. 2).

What am I missing here?

Serrations are good for biting into big chunks of flesh, btw. Just ask any steak knife.

References
Brink KS and Reisz RR 2014. Hidden dental diversity in the oldest terrestrial apex predator Dimetrodon. Nature Communications. doi: 10.1038/ncomms4269