A-Z Browse

city, southwestern Turkey. It lies near a tributary of the Menderes River. Set among the gardens at the foot of Mount Gökbel (7,572 feet [2,308 metres]), Denizli inherited the economic position of ancient Laodicea ad Lycum, 4 miles (6 km) away, when that town was deserted during wars between the Byzantines and the Seljuq Turks in the 12th century. By th...

city, southwestern Turkey. It lies near a tributary of the Menderes River. Set among the gardens at the foot of Mount Gökbel (7,572 feet [2,308 metres]), Denizli inherited the economic position of ancient Laodicea ad Lycum, 4 miles (6 km) away, when that town was deserted during wars between the Byzantines and the Seljuq Turks in the 12th century. By th...

...only one is preserved as such in the Vidēvdāt), is given in one of the main treatises written during the brief Zoroastrian renascence under Islām in the 9th century; the Dēnkart, the “Acts of the Religion.” It is written in Pahlavi, the language of the Sāsānians....

American chess master (b. Feb. 21, 1914, Bronx, N.Y.—d. Jan. 2, 2005, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), was a top chess player during the 1940s and later a respected administrator and promoter of chess. Denker began playing in the U.S. chess championships in 1936 and won the championship in 1944 with a 91% winning score, which was surpassed only by Bobby Fischer’s 100% in 1963...

hand-operated device for lifting water, invented in ancient times and still used in India, Egypt, and some other countries to irrigate land. Typically it consists of a long, tapering, nearly horizontal pole mounted like a seesaw. A skin or bucket is hung on a rope from the long end, and a counterweight is hung on the short end. The operator pulls down on a rope attached to the long end to fill the...

...roughly the northern third of the island. In December Makarios returned and resumed the presidency, and a few months later Turkish leaders proclaimed a Turkish Federated State of Cyprus under Rauf Denktash as president. Since that time the boundary between the two sectors has unofficially been known as “the Attila Line,” named for the Turkish army’s battle plan....

Bülow’s posthumously published memoirs, Denkwürdigkeiten (ed. by Franz von Stockhammern, 4 vol., 1930–31; Eng. trans. Memoirs, 4 vol., 1931–32), represented an attempt by Bülow to exonerate himself from any blame for the war and for Germany’s collapse; in fact, they reflect his blindness to his own limitations as a statesma...

major 17th-century kingdom of the southern Akan peoples, situated in the forested hinterland of modern Ghana’s southwestern coast. According to tradition, its kings migrated from the area of the northern Akan or Brong. By the end of the 17th century they had subjugated the Twifo and the Akan subjects of Axim (to the south), had taken over the rich gold-bearing districts o...

major 17th-century kingdom of the southern Akan peoples, situated in the forested hinterland of modern Ghana’s southwestern coast. According to tradition, its kings migrated from the area of the northern Akan or Brong. By the end of the 17th century they had subjugated the Twifo and the Akan subjects of Axim (to the south), had taken over the rich gold-bearing districts o...

country occupying the peninsula of Jutland (Jylland), which extends northward from the centre of continental western Europe, and an archipelago of more than 400 islands to the east of the peninsula. Jutland makes up more than two-thirds of the country’s total land area; the largest of the islands are Zealand (Sjælland; 2,715 square miles [7,031 s...

the established, state-supported church in Denmark. Lutheranism was established in Denmark during the Protestant Reformation....

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The history of the people of Denmark, like that of all humankind, can be divided into prehistoric and historic eras. Sufficient written historical sources for Danish history do not become available before the establishment of medieval church institutions, notably monasteries, where monks recorded orally transmitted stories from the Viking era and earlier times. To be sure, there are older......

country occupying the peninsula of Jutland (Jylland), which extends northward from the centre of continental western Europe, and an archipelago of more than 400 islands to the east of the peninsula. Jutland makes up more than two-thirds of the country’s total land area; the largest of the islands are Zealand (Sjælland; 2,715 square miles [7,031 s...

channel partially within the Arctic Circle, lying between Greenland (west) and Iceland (east). About 180 miles (290 km) wide at its narrowest point, the strait extends southward for 300 miles (483 km) from the Greenland Sea to the open waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. The cold East Greenland Current flows southward along the west side of the strait and carries icebergs, which originate in the ...

largest aquarium in Denmark, located in Charlottenlund, outside of Copenhagen. It is noted for its collection of unusual fishes. Included among the more than 3,000 specimens of nearly 200 species of marine and freshwater fishes are lungfish, blind cave fish, mudskippers, and the primitive paddlefish from the United States. The aquarium also has some noteworthy exhibits featuring such marine invert...

In June 1999 Brian Dennehy received a Tony Award for his portrayal of Willy Loman, the lead role in the 50th-anniversary Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. The 60-year-old American actor, whose body of work spanned several decades and included a long list of film, television, and stage productions, was applauded for his depiction of Loman’s erosion in a p...

Polish-born French motion-picture actor who was best known for his role as the lascivious title character in François Truffaut’s 1977 film The Man Who Loved Women (b. May 28, 1926--d. Sept. 10, 1995)....

German maker of musical instruments and inventor of the clarinet....

For centuries philosophers had grappled with the problem of the nature of consciousness, and at the end of the 20th century the mind-body problem still provoked lively debate. At home in this contentious milieu was philosopher Dan Dennett, head of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University, Medford, Mass. Beginning in the 1960s Dennett argued, in an elegant and engaging style, for the m...

American reformer, best remembered for her activism in support of the ready and free availability of birth control and sex education....

essayist and editor who was a major literary figure in the United States in the early 19th century....

British judge who was known as a champion of the common man, more concerned with justice than with the strict letter of the law; one of the U.K.’s best-known and most highly respected judges, he served as master of the rolls for 20 of his 38 years on the bench and gained special prominence in 1963 when he presided over the sex-and-politics scandal that ensued when it was revealed that Briti...

American actor who played opposite Lucille Ball in the radio series "My Favorite Husband," portrayed the "other man" in a number of movies in the 1940s and ’50s, and became a cult figure in the ’50s by battling menacing creatures in such low-budget monster films as The Creature from the Black Lagoon; on television he starred in "Mr. and Mrs. North" from 1952 to 1954 and appear...

British judge who was known as a champion of the common man, more concerned with justice than with the strict letter of the law; one of the U.K.’s best-known and most highly respected judges, he served as master of the rolls for 20 of his 38 years on the bench and gained special prominence in 1963 when he presided over the sex-and-politics scandal that ensued when it was revealed that Briti...

American actor who played opposite Lucille Ball in the radio series "My Favorite Husband," portrayed the "other man" in a number of movies in the 1940s and ’50s, and became a cult figure in the ’50s by battling menacing creatures in such low-budget monster films as The Creature from the Black Lagoon; on television he starred in "Mr. and Mrs. North" from 1952 to 1954 and appear...

town (township), Barnstable county, southeastern Massachusetts, U.S. It extends across Cape Cod and includes the villages of Dennis, Dennis Port (Dennisport), East Dennis, South Dennis, and West Dennis. Settled in 1639, it was a part of Yarmouth until 1793, when it was incorporated and named for Josiah Dennis, pastor of the first meetinghouse. Clipper ships we...

American surgeon (b. June 16, 1909, St. Paul, Minn.—d. July 11, 2005, St. Paul), performed on April 5, 1951, the world’s first open-heart surgery carried out with the use of a heart-lung machine that he had developed at the University of Minnesota. Though the patient died, his pioneering work revolutionized the field of cardiovascular surgery. Dennis joined the staff of the State Uni...

...ignored local preoccupations in his Symbolist poetry; he tapped instead the deep sources of spiritual restlessness, particularly through the use of myth and archetype. Some popular writers, such as C.J. Dennis in his verses about the Sentimental Bloke, relocated many of the bush attitudes to the inner city....

American Communist Party leader and labour organizer. He was general secretary of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) from 1945 to 1957 and national chairman during 1959–61....

English critic and dramatist whose insistence upon the importance of passion in poetry led to a long quarrel with Alexander Pope....

English writer and critic who used absurd plots and witty repartee to satirize psychiatry, religion, and social behaviour, most notably in his novel Cards of Identity (1955)....

English writer and critic who used absurd plots and witty repartee to satirize psychiatry, religion, and social behaviour, most notably in his novel Cards of Identity (1955)....

American contemporary dance innovator who influenced almost every phase of American dance....

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...arrangements in the United States. Justice Holmes’s constitutional flexibility in the Schenck case can be considered to have culminated in the later assurance by Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson in Dennis v. United States (1951), in which the convictions of a dozen Communist Party leaders were upheld:Nothing is more certain in modern society than the principle that ...

watch manufacturer who was among the first to adapt the concept of interchangeable parts to the production of pocket watches. He is generally credited with being the father of American mass-production watchmaking....

...ferns, the rhizome short to long and creeping; indument of hairs, rarely scales; sori mostly marginal with 2-lipped indusia; spores mostly tetrahedral, nonperisporial; genera number 16 (including Dennstaedtia, Pteridium, Hypolepis, Lindsaea) with about 400 species, mainly tropical in distribution.Family Hymenophyllaceae ...

...sorus from below; spores mostly tetrahedral, nonperisporial; genera number 7 (including Dicksonia, Cibotium, Cyathea) with nearly 1,000 species.Family Dennstaedtiaceae (cup ferns, bracken)Terrestrial, medium-size to large ferns, the rhizome short to long and creeping; indument of hairs, rar...

in music, a steam-whistle organ with a loud, shrill sound audible miles away; it is used to attract attention for circuses and fairs. It was invented in the United States about 1850 by A.S. Denny and patented in 1855 by Joshua C. Stoddard....

American actress who, with her extensive tours of the American West and her triumphs in New York City, was the leading actress on the American stage before the rise of Charlotte Cushman....

American bandleader (b. April 10, 1911, New York, N.Y.—d. March 2, 2005, Hawaii Kai, near Honolulu, Hawaii), specialized in so-called exotica—music that combined jazz, Polynesian rhythms and instrumentation, and jungle sounds—which was popular in the 1950s and ’60s. The first of his 38 albums, Exotica, made it to the top of the charts in 1959, and the single ...

...has never supported an established church, and the diversity of the population has discouraged any tendency toward uniformity in worship. As a result of this individualism, thousands of religious denominations thrive within the country. Only about one-sixth of religious adherents are not Christian, and although Roman Catholicism is the largest single denomination (about one-fifth of the U.S.......

...is written n/d and is called a common fraction. It may be considered as the quotient of n divided by d. The number d is called the denominator (it determines the fractional unit or denomination), and n is called the numerator (it enumerates the number of fractional units that are taken). The numerator and denominator......

French artist, archaeologist, and museum official who played an important role in the development of the Louvre collection....

in logic, correlative words that indicate the reference of a term or concept: “intension” indicates the internal content of a term or concept that constitutes its formal definition; and “extension” indicates its range of applicability by naming the particular objects that it denotes. For instance, the intension of “ship” as a substantive is “vehicl...

in literature, the final action that completes the unraveling of the plot in a play, especially in a tragedy. Catastrophe is a synonym of denouement. The term is sometimes applied to a similar action in a novel or story....

city, capital of Bali provinsi (province), south-central Bali, Indonesia, 40 miles (70 km) south of Singaraja. The largest city on the island of Bali, it is also the capital of the Badung kabupaten (regency). Denpasar was the site of a suicidal battle of the rajas of Badung against...

...The normal platelet count in humans is between 150,000 and 400,000 platelets per cubic millimetre of blood. The inactive platelet contains three types of internal granules: the alpha granules, the dense granules, and the lysosomes. Each of these granules is rich in certain chemicals that have an important role in platelet function. For example, dense granules contain large quantities of......

The possibility is not excluded that a theory may be categorical in some infinite cardinality. The theory Td, for example, of dense linear ordering (such as that of the rational numbers) is categorical in the countable cardinality. One application of the Löwenheim-Skolem theorem is: If a theory has no finite models and is categorical in some infinite cardinality αあるふぁ,....

...nuclear explosions cannot occur at the same time in close proximity to one another because the first detonated warhead triggers low-yield partial explosions in the others. The proposal, called dense pack, would exploit this phenomenon by packing a large number of super-hardened ICBM silos closely together in a single location....

Densification...

device that measures the density, or the degree of darkening, of a photographic film or plate by recording photometrically its transparency (fraction of incident light transmitted). In visual methods, two beams of equal intensity are used. One is directed through the plate, while the intensity of the other is adjusted by an optical wedge, by an iris diaphragm, or by moving the source, until the t...

mass of a unit volume of a material substance, expressed as kilograms per cubic metre in MKS or SI units; the densities of common solids, liquids, and gases are listed in textbooks and handbooks. Density offers a convenient means of obtaining the mass of a body from its volume or vice versa; the mass is equal to the volume multiplied by the density, while the volume is equal to...

any current in either a liquid or a gas that is kept in motion by the force of gravity acting on small differences in density. A density difference can exist between two fluids or between different parts of the same fluid because of a difference in temperature, salinity, or concentration of suspended sediment....

Population ecologists commonly divide the factors that regulate the size of populations into density-dependent and density-independent factors. Density-independent factors, such as weather and climate, affect the same proportion of individuals in a population regardless of population density. In contrast, the effects of density-dependent factors intensify as the population increases in size.......

For random variables having a continuum of possible values, the function that plays the same role as the probability distribution of a discrete random variable is called a probability density function. If the random variable is denoted by X, its probability density function f has the property that...

...A. Pople, received the 1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The award recognized their individual work on computations in quantum chemistry. Kohn’s share of the prize acknowledged his development of the density-functional theory, which made it possible to apply the complicated mathematics of quantum mechanics to the description and analysis of the chemical bonding between atoms....

...nitrogen incorporated it in their DNA. When the bacteria were returned to nutrients containing ordinary nitrogen, their reproduction formed cells that had a new medium-weight DNA. (A new technique, density-gradient centrifugation, could be used to separate such molecules by weight.) On heating, this DNA separated into half heavy and half light strands. Meselson and Stahl concluded that the new....

Population ecologists commonly divide the factors that regulate the size of populations into density-dependent and density-independent factors. Density-independent factors, such as weather and climate, affect the same proportion of individuals in a population regardless of population density. In contrast, the effects of density-dependent factors intensify as the population increases in size.......

...matter in the arms causes deflections of what would otherwise be circular orbits (on average), the deflections self-consistently producing the original pileup. Most astronomers are agreed that density waves underlie the phenomenon of spiral structure in the so-called grand-design galaxies. More controversial is whether some other mechanism (e.g., “stochastic star......

...matter in the arms causes deflections of what would otherwise be circular orbits (on average), the deflections self-consistently producing the original pileup. Most astronomers are agreed that density waves underlie the phenomenon of spiral structure in the so-called grand-design galaxies. More controversial is whether some other mechanism (e.g., “stochastic star......

ethnologist, foremost American authority of her time on the songs and music of American Indian tribes, and widely published author on Indian culture and life-styles....

highest peak (20,320 ft [6,194 m]) in North America, located near the centre of the Alaska Range, south central Alaska, U.S. Lying 130 mi (210 km) north-northwest of Anchorage in Denali National Park and Preserve, the mountain rises abruptly 17,000 ft above its base at the higher, more southerly of its two peaks. The upper two-thirds of its massive summit is covered with permane...

American lawyer who, as chief military prosecutor of Nazis accused of many of the most horrific of the atrocities committed in Germany at the Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Flossenberg, and Dachau concentration camps, was the most successful of the American prosecutors of World War II criminals; of 177 Nazis he prosecuted between 1945 and 1947, 97 were hanged and the rest went to prison (b. May 31, 1913,...

folklorist, philologist, and poet who introduced trends of European modernism into Romanian literature....

Commercial classifications, based mainly on kernel texture, include dent corn, flint corn, flour corn, sweet corn, and popcorn. Dent corn is characterized by a depression in the crown of the kernel caused by unequal drying of the hard and soft starch making up the kernel. Flint corn, containing little soft starch, has no depression. Flour corn, composed largely of soft starch, has soft, mealy,......

Englishman noted for his design and construction of fine and historically important precision clocks and chronometers....

...at Westminster, but he died before completing the project. Upon the death of Rippon, Dent had married his widow, whose sons Frederick and Richard took Dent’s name and succeeded to his business. Frederick Rippon Dent’s company finally installed Big Ben in 1859....

...as a bridge between the deluxe bibliophilic editions and ordinary books. Companies such as those of John Lane and Elkin Mathews, who published Oscar Wilde and the periodical The Yellow Book; J.M. Dent, who commissioned Aubrey Beardsley to illustrate Malory and who used Kelmscott-inspired endpapers for his Everyman’s Library; Stone and Kimball of Chicago and Thomas Mosher of Maine,...

American first lady (1869–77), the wife of Ulysses S. Grant, 18th president of the United States and commander of the Union armies during the last years of the American Civil War. A popular first lady, she was noted for her informal manner and opulent entertaining....

About 65 percent of all dental auxiliaries are dental assistants. Their duties vary according to the degree to which the dentist elects to delegate duties that do not require extensive professional knowledge. In general, the assistant is expected to prepare patients for dental treatment; to prepare materials and equipment for use by the dentist, including sterilizing and laying out instruments;......

person qualified by training and experience to perform dental work under the direction and supervision of a dentist. Some of these auxiliary persons work directly for the dentist in his own office; others work in a separate office or laboratory, where they perform services to the dentist on the basis of work authorizations or prescriptions. There are three principal dental-auxiliary groups: ...

cavity or decay of a tooth, a localized disease that begins at the surface of the tooth and may progress through the dentine into the pulp cavity. It is believed that the action of microorganisms in the mouth on ingested sugars and carbohydrates produces acids that eat away the enamel. The protein structure of the dentine is then destroyed by enzymatic action and bacterial invasion....

Dental cements are used for the cementation of crowns and bridges and as bases under other restorative materials. A good dental cement is strong and stiff, resistant to dissolution in the mouth, biocompatible with pulpal tissues, and cariostatic (i.e., helping to prevent caries). The ability to bond chemically to tooth structure is desirable, although mechanical retention is usually......

...upper incisors are peglike, one or the other pair often being absent; in the lower jaw, the incisors show a peculiar conformation that has been likened structurally and functionally to a comb. This dental comb is composed of the lower canines and lower incisors compressed from side to side and slanted forward; the most specialized dental combs—seen, for example, in the fork-crowned lemur...

The Classical Latin consonant system probably included a series of labial sounds (produced with the lips) /p b m f/ and probably /w/; a dental or alveolar series (produced with the tongue against the front teeth or the alveolar ridge behind the upper front teeth) /t d n s l/ and possibly /r/; a velar series (produced with the tongue approaching or contacting the velum or soft palate) /k g/ and......

The teeth of vertebrates represent the modified descendants of bony dermal (skin) plates that armoured ancestral fishes. A tooth consists of a crown and one or more roots. The crown is the functional part that is visible above the gum. The root is the unseen portion that supports and fastens the tooth in the jawbone. The root is attached to the tooth-bearing bone—the alveolar......

The teeth of vertebrates represent the modified descendants of bony dermal (skin) plates that armoured ancestral fishes. A tooth consists of a crown and one or more roots. The crown is the functional part that is visible above the gum. The root is the unseen portion that supports and fastens the tooth in the jawbone. The root is attached to the tooth-bearing bone—the alveolar.........

...others work in a separate office or laboratory, where they perform services to the dentist on the basis of work authorizations or prescriptions. There are three principal dental-auxiliary groups: dental hygienists, dental laboratory technicians, and dental assistants. Of the three groups, only dental hygienists are required to have university training....

Dental insurance, usually sold on a group plan and sponsored by an employer, covers such dental services as fillings, crowns, extractions, bridgework, and dentures. Most policies contain relatively low annual limits of coverage, such as $2,500, as well as deductibles and coinsurance provisions. Some policies limit benefits to a percentage of the cost of services....

A dental laboratory technician, upon receiving a prescription or work-authorization form from a licensed dentist, fabricates various appliances, such as full and partial dentures, crowns and bridges, and other prosthetic devices that the dentist uses in making restorations for the patient. The technician is not permitted to fit these appliances, nor may he take the impressions from which the......

A dental laboratory technician, upon receiving a prescription or work-authorization form from a licensed dentist, fabricates various appliances, such as full and partial dentures, crowns and bridges, and other prosthetic devices that the dentist uses in making restorations for the patient. The technician is not permitted to fit these appliances, nor may he take the impressions from which the......

After predental courses, training consists of four years in a faculty of dentistry to qualify as a doctor of dental surgery (D.D.S.) or doctor of dental medicine (D.M.D.), both degrees being equivalent. The program of studies during the four-year course includes the following biological sciences: human anatomy, biochemistry, bacteriology, histology, pathology, pharmacology, microbiology, and......

In New Zealand, auxiliaries known as dental nurses (or dental therapists) have been carrying out a dental care program for children for a number of years. Traditionally, a dental nurse receives minimal supervision but is equipped to provide a dental care program for children and adolescents up to 18 years of age. In the past, a degree in dental therapy required two years of specialized......

...disease of the teeth among humans. Apart from the common cold, it is perhaps the most frequent disease in contemporary society. Tooth decay originates in the buildup of a yellowish film called plaque on teeth, which tends to harbour bacteria. The bacteria that live on plaque ferment the sugar and starchy-food debris found there into acids that destroy the tooth’s enamel and dentine by......

After predental courses, training consists of four years in a faculty of dentistry to qualify as a doctor of dental surgery (D.D.S.) or doctor of dental medicine (D.M.D.), both degrees being equivalent. The program of studies during the four-year course includes the following biological sciences: human anatomy, biochemistry, bacteriology, histology, pathology, pharmacology, microbiology, and......

A dental laboratory technician, upon receiving a prescription or work-authorization form from a licensed dentist, fabricates various appliances, such as full and partial dentures, crowns and bridges, and other prosthetic devices that the dentist uses in making restorations for the patient. The technician is not permitted to fit these appliances, nor may he take the impressions from which the......

In New Zealand, auxiliaries known as dental nurses (or dental therapists) have been carrying out a dental care program for children for a number of years. Traditionally, a dental nurse receives minimal supervision but is equipped to provide a dental care program for children and adolescents up to 18 years of age. In the past, a degree in dental therapy required two years of specialized......

Hupa people traditionally measured wealth in terms of the ownership of woodpecker scalps and dentalium shells, the latter of which were probably received in trade from the Yurok. The village’s richest man was its headman; his power and his property passed to his son, but anyone who acquired more property might obtain the dignity and power of that office. Personal insult, injury, or homicide...

any of about 10 species of perennial herbs belonging to the genus Dentaria, of the mustard family (Brassicaceae), native to northern temperate areas. The name toothwort refers to the plant’s toothed, or scaly, rootstock. The four-petaled flowers, borne in a terminal cluster, are white, pink, or pale purple. Toothwort, pepperwort, or crinklewort (D. diphylla), native to moist ...

...or pale purple. Toothwort, pepperwort, or crinklewort (D. diphylla), native to moist woods of North America, bears one pair of stem leaves, each of which is divided into three broad leaflets. Cut-leaved toothwort (D. laciniata), from the same area, has a whorl of three stem leaves. Each leaf is deeply cut into three narrow, bluntly toothed segments....

Roman general, conqueror of the Samnites and victor against Pyrrhus, king of Epirus....

part of a conodont, a small toothlike fossil found in marine rocks representative of a long span of geologic time. Although they resemble cusps, denticles are generally smaller than distinct cusps and vary greatly in shape and structure. Denticles may be spaced closely to each other or separated by gaps of varying size; they may be distinctly formed or partially fused to each other. In shape, den...

...the bivalves, gastropods have an odontophore at the anterior end of the digestive tract. Generally, this organ forms a broad ribbon (radula) covered with a few to many thousand “teeth” (denticles). The radula is used in feeding: muscles extrude the radula from the mouth, spread it out, and then pull it back into the mouth, carrying particles or pieces of food and debris into the.....

...animals. Scales provide protection from the environment and from predators. Fish scales are formed of bone from the deeper, or dermal, skin layer. The elasmobranchs (e.g., sharks) have placoid scales; these are bony, spiny projections with an enamel-like covering. Ganoid scales, which are found on such fishes as gars and the bowfin, are similar to placoid scales but are covered......

in anatomy, the yellowish tissue that makes up the bulk of all teeth. It is harder than bone but softer than enamel and consists mainly of apatite crystals of calcium and phosphate. In humans, other mammals, and the elasmobranch fishes (e.g., sharks, rays), a layer of dentine-producing cells, odontoblasts, line the pulp cavity of the tooth (or, in the case of sharks, the ...

in anatomy, the yellowish tissue that makes up the bulk of all teeth. It is harder than bone but softer than enamel and consists mainly of apatite crystals of calcium and phosphate. In humans, other mammals, and the elasmobranch fishes (e.g., sharks, rays), a layer of dentine-producing cells, odontoblasts, line the pulp cavity of the tooth (or, in the case of sharks, the ...

in anatomy, the yellowish tissue that makes up the bulk of all teeth. It is harder than bone but softer than enamel and consists mainly of apatite crystals of calcium and phosphate. In humans, other mammals, and the elasmobranch fishes (e.g., sharks, rays), a layer of dentine-producing cells, odontoblasts, line the pulp cavity of the tooth (or, in the case of sharks, the ...