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Turian Biology and Oral Anatomy

Originally from the planet Palaven, Turians were the third race to join the Citadel Council. Turians are militaristic and are often seen having facial tattoos that of their colony. It is rare for a Turian to not wear facial markings and is looked down on by Turian society. Turians are often seen in public service roles, having a strong group mentality from a young age. There is no significant difference between genders in Turian society, the only difference is physical. Male Turians have a set of long, often straight, horns that go several inches past the crown of the head, while female Turians typically lack this crest of horns. 

The average height for Turians is around six feet. Turians have a standard humanoid appearance with a torso, head, two arms, and two legs. Turians have two fingers with an opposable thumb with long talons. Though the talons are often covered by armor or gloves. Turians also have very recognizable voices that have a flanging effect, likely caused by having a tight oro-pharynx. It is said that the lifespan of a Turian is similar to humans, which on the Citadel can be up to 150 years.  Turian skin tends to fall in a range of browns, tans, and grays, while their eyes tend be greens and yellows.  Turian blood tends to be of a dark blue color. The facial markings of a Turian can be any color, it is unknown what meaning the color has in reference to the Turian's colony. Other notable features of Turians are their shallow waists and mass of flesh circling around the head and forward to the chest. It is unknown what this mass around the head is for, since all of our question have only been answered with sarcasm thus far. While Turians are omnivores, it is highly suspected they were once purely carnivores, judging by dental structure alone. While the anterior of the oral cavity is edentulous (lacking teeth), the posterior is comprised of five cuspids per quadrant, coming to twenty cuspids total. The mandibular cuspids are single-rooted while the maxillary cuspids are double-rooted. The lack of molars suggests that Turians were either carnivorous once, or that plant life on Palaven was soft enough to not require much mastication. The accepted theory is that Turians were carnivores before leaving Palaven and then underwent several biological evolutions in the time after that, namely becoming omnivores. It is speculated that Turian mandibles were once larger and used for food consumption but were deemed unnecessary through evolution and Turian intelligence, thus the mandibles became smaller over time and are no longer necessary for food consumption. Likewise, it is speculated that the nasal passages were also once larger than they are at present. Based on leg structure, talons, and the quick, front facing eyes, it can be estimated that Turians are a predator race. While Turians have maintained the muscular leg structure and large talons that were likely used for hunting, it's also likely that the nasal passages were once larger to allow better breath control while hunting. It is unknown why the nasal passages and sinus cavities have evolved to be smaller. At present the sinus cavities in Turians are smaller than they are in humans with Turian nasal passages being narrower and slitted. On panoramic x-ray the sinus cavities in Turians can just barely been seen at the top of the x-ray, whereas in humans the sinus cavities are visible just above the roots of the anterior maxillary teeth. The Turian carapace contains trace amounts of the element thulium. This trait was developed to provide protection against solar radiation penetrating their home-world's weak magnetic field. While thulium is a metal, it is a very soft metal capable of being cut with a knife. Thusly the thulium in a Turian's carapace can serve to protect from solar radiation but it doesn't act as physical armor. This thulium exterior extends to include the oral cavity as well. The enamel of the cuspids contains trace amounts of thulium. In addition to protecting against solar radiation, the thulium in the enamel helps to protect the teeth from the open air exposure caused by having a lack of cheeks as well as a lack of salivary glands, both of which protect and help clean the teeth in other species. As an additional note, thulium is not toxic and so only normal PPE is required when treating Turians. Turians do not have salivary glands nor do they have facial cheeks but instead have separate mandibles that can cover the side opening of the oral cavity. Though Turians have these mandibles it is most common to leave the oral openings uncovered, which allows air to pass into the oral cavity. The anterior of the oral cavity is capable of closing together completely, the maxillary 'lip' coming forward and in front of the mandibular 'lip'. The Turian tongue is typically narrow and not nearly as flexible as the human tongue. The Turian tongue is rough, not being lubricated by saliva, and has a sandpaper quality to it. The oropharynx contains mucous glands that enable slight lubrication for swallowing food. Turian sensitivity to non-dextro-based food is rumored to be quite severe and have potentially deadly side-effects. However, it would seem that Turians merely cannot digest levo-based foods. The consumption of levo-foods can have effects ranging from no effect at all to mild irritation to bloating and diarhea, depending on quantity consumed. While levo-based foods are not toxic or lethal to Turians, it provides no nutritional value. So thusly, Turians require dextro-based foods to stay healthy and gain neccessary nutrition. In addition to being restricted to dextro-based foods, Turians are also limited to foods that can be easily broken down by the internal digestive system. Without the aid of salivary glands the process of digesting food doesn't begin until the food has reached the stomach. Eating foods that are harder to digest can cause indigestion and even blockages in the Turian digestive system. 

While Turians are a very civilized race it is advised that if you wish to initiate an interaction with a Turian that you have all of your papers in order, or else you might get thrown out of the Citadel. 

(Disclaimer for the Mass Effect universe. I'm writing this as though 'bio-gel' does not exist and instead, more traditional dentistry is used, at least until I've settled on an idea of what futuristic dentistry is like in Mass Effect, because obviously it would be different from today's dentistry standards.) (Author's Notes: Most of this is purely speculation based on my knowledge of anatomy and the physical appearance of Turians as well as their history and attitude. Please don't take this too seriously, it's just for fun and speculation. None of this is canon and probably won't ever be. I just love Turians. Thank you for reading.) ________________________________________________________________

Resources:

This Image by KraeHi on DeviantArt helped give me ideas that got me started on speculating how Turians really work. While nothing was taken directly from the image, it did inspire me quite a bit.

This article provided quite a bit of basic information, it’s a great read for anyone wanting to know more about Turians beyond their physical biology. 

The first answer on this Reddit question helped a lot with thinking about dextro-amino acids. I did some light reading in other places too but I thought this one was the most relevant and was what I actually thought about while writing that part of the post.