eli5 How do teeth decay over a lifetime but we find teeth in skeletons and fossils all the time?

Question

eli5 How do teeth decay over a lifetime but we find teeth in skeletons and fossils all the time?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Tooth decay is mainly caused by sugars of which we eat **much** more than our ancestors did, those of our ancestors that did have access to lots of sugars did tend to have tooth decay.