Dental Development as a Measure of Life History in Primates

A geometric morphometric analysis of heterochrony in the cranium of chimpanzees and bonobos

“…Finally, even if the chronological rate of dental developmental differs between these species, the relationship between these events and craniofacial development appears to be broadly conserved among primates. Most importantly, M1 eruption occurs near the time of the cessation of neural growth, and M3 eruption occurs close to the completion of craniofacial growth (Schultz, 1960;Smith, 1989Smith, , 1991Kelley and Smith, 2003).…”

Retrieving chronological age from dental remains of early fossil hominins to reconstruct human growth in the past

“…Besides enabling us to discover things about the evolutionary history of our own growth period, studies of comparative dental development provide us with an opportunity for investigating the biological processes that govern tooth formation from the initial mineralization of teeth to the completion of their roots (Swindler 1985). Smith (1989) has shown that certain key marker events during dental development actually correlate better with important variables that describe lifehistory variation than any of these life-history variables do with each other. Because of this, some tentative inferences can be made about the way fossil primates lived their lives compared with living primates that go beyond simple relative dento-skeletal comparisons.…”

Paleobiology and Behavior

“…In many primates, there is a close relationship between life history pattern and age of eruption of the first molar (M1). Specifically, this is because M1 eruption age is correlated with adult brain weight, which is itself correlated with life history patterns more generally (Smith 1989). In some primates, M1 eruption age is also linked to weaning.…”