False teeth and Tuatara might seem like an odd combination, but research into the New Zealand reptile's teeth is going to benefit human denture wearers.

That's because Tuatara have teeth fixed to their jawbone rather than fixed to pockets with ligaments, like humans do. This research will give insight into how wearing dentures affects the muscles, ligaments and joints of the jaw of those who wear them. From Phsyorg.com:

The team has created a 3-D computer model of the skull of the tuatara to investigate the feedback that occurs between the jaw joints and muscles in a creature that lacks periodontal ligaments.

"Tuatara live happily for over 60 years in the wild without replacing their teeth because they have the ability to unconsciously measure the forces in their jaw joint and adjust the strength of the jaw muscle contractions accordingly", said Dr Curtis.

Although this explains why tuatara and people with false teeth manage not to break their teeth and don't end up with jaw joint disorders, it is still clear that having a periodontal ligament is very useful, in particular for fine tuning chewing movements. This may explain why it has evolved independently in the ancestors of mammals, crocodiles, dinosaurs, and even some fish.

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