Dental microwear and diets of African early Homo

Ungar, Peter S.; Grine, Frederick E.; Teaford, Mark F.; Zaatari, Sireen El

doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2005.08.007

Cited by 90 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 109 publications

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“…Jolly 2001), in this instance the likely shift from heavily wooded to more open savanna habitats. In effect, any 2 taxa perceived to share a likeness in apomorphies are analogous, and Laden and Wrangham (2005), Peters and O'Brien (1981), Schaller and Lowther (1969), Ungar et al (2006), Washburn andDeVore (1961), andYeakel et al (2007) used many such cases in attempts to resolve hominin palaeoecology, including chimpanzees and gorillas, cercopithecoid monkeys, platyrrhine monkeys, African carnivores, molerats (Bathyergidae), porcupines (Hystricidae), and others. However, there is a risk of misinterpreting the conclusions that one can derive from the approaches.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Insights Can Baboon Feeding Ecology Provide for Early Hominin Niche Differentiation?

et al. 2008

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Several authors have proposed that papionin baboons provide appropriate analogs for early hominin niche differentiation. Savanna-dwelling baboons and australopiths both radiated around the same time after Neogene expansion of C 4 grasslands, likely experiencing similar environmental changes and faced with solving similar ecological problems. We explore the insights baboons may provide into dietary ecology of savanna-occupying hominins. We compare dietary information from stable isotope data for feces, hair, and tooth dentine collagen of modern chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) with dietary data for Plio-Pleistocene papionins and hominins from South African savannas. Results confirm that, like the australopiths, baboons consume substantial amounts of C 4 food sources. However, the magnitude of inter-and intraindividual variation in baboon diets across different seasons and habitats is less than that from specimens of Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus analyzed to date. Hominins also consumed greater amounts of C 4 resources. Thus, though the data demonstrate that the radiation of both primate groups was closely linked with the spread of C 4 grasslands, hominins were even more extreme ecological generalists than baboons were. The absence of a fixed-diet in papionins implies that it was unlikely that the more ecologically flexible hominins evolved specializations for any one food type, an interpretation consistent with recent carbon isotope, dental microwear, and ecomorphological studies. We propose that researchers place less emphasis on resolving the foods that were most important for hominin differentiation; instead, future research should focus on questions related to ecological generalism.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Insights Can Baboon Feeding Ecology Provide for Early Hominin Niche Differentiation?

et al. 2008

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“…To fill this empirical void we surveyed the mechanical characteristics of USOs from across sub-Saharan Africa. We Ungar et al 2006b;p Jolly 1970 present the data here and contextualize the concept of food hardness by comparing our results to foods in the diets of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus). Such a comparative framework is instructive for testing evolutionary hypotheses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Mechanical Properties of Plant Underground Storage Organs and Implications for Dietary Models of Early Hominins

et al. 2008

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Constantino P, and Lucas PW. The mechanical properties of plant underground storage organs and implications for the adaptive radiation and resource partitioning of early hominins. Evolutionary Biology 35(3): 159-175. Abstract The diet of early human ancestors has received renewed theoretical interest since the discovery of elevated d RESEARCH ARTICLE13 C values in the enamel of Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus. As a result, the hominin diet is hypothesized to have included C 4 grass or the tissues of animals which themselves consumed C 4 grass. On mechanical grounds, such a diet is incompatible with the dental morphology and dental microwear of early hominins. Most inferences, particularly for Paranthropus, favor a diet of hard or mechanically resistant foods. This discrepancy has invigorated the longstanding hypothesis that hominins consumed plant underground storage organs (USOs). Plant USOs are attractive candidate foods because many bulbous grasses and cormous sedges use C 4 photosynthesis. Yet mechanical data for USOs-or any putative hominin food-are scarcely known. To fill this empirical void we measured the mechanical properties of USOs from 98 plant species from across sub-Saharan Africa. We found that rhizomes were the most resistant to deformation and fracture, followed by tubers, corms, and bulbs. An important result of this study is that corms exhibited low toughness values (mean = 265.0 J m -2 ) and relatively high Young's modulus values (mean = 4.9 MPa). This combination of properties fits many descriptions of the hominin diet as consisting of hard-brittle objects. When compared to corms, bulbs are tougher (mean = 325.0 J m -2 ) and less stiff (mean = 2.5 MPa). Again, this combination of traits resembles dietary inferences, especially for Australopithecus, which is predicted to have consumed soft-tough foods. Lastly, we observed the roasting behavior of Hadza hunter-gatherers and measured the effects of roasting on the toughness on undomesticated tubers. Our results support assumptions that roasting lessens the work of mastication, and, by inference, the cost of digestion. Together these findings provide the first mechanical basis for discussing the adaptive advantages of roasting tubers and the plausibility of USOs in the diet of early hominins.

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“…Grine 1977Grine , 1981Grine , 1986Puech 1979;Ryan 1980;Walker 1981;Ungar et al 2006). Many studies of hominin dental microwear have been published over the past thirty years, including feature-based quantitative analyses of molar occlusal surface microwear in Australopithecus afarensis 1 and Australopithecus anamensis (Grine et al 2006a,b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molar microwear textures and the diets ofAustralopithecus anamensisandAustralopithecus afarensis

Ungar

Scott

Grine

et al. 2010

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Many researchers have suggested that Australopithecus anamensis and Australopithecus afarensis were among the earliest hominins to have diets that included hard, brittle items. Here we examine dental microwear textures of these hominins for evidence of this. The molars of three Au. anamensis and 19 Au. afarensis specimens examined preserve unobscured antemortem microwear. Microwear textures of these individuals closely resemble those of Paranthropus boisei, having lower complexity values than Australopithecus africanus and especially Paranthropus robustus. The microwear texture complexity values for Au. anamensis and Au. afarensis are similar to those of the grass-eating Theropithecus gelada and folivorous Alouatta palliata and Trachypithecus cristatus. This implies that these Au. anamensis and Au. afarensis individuals did not have diets dominated by hard, brittle foods shortly before their deaths. On the other hand, microwear texture anisotropy values for these taxa are lower on average than those of Theropithecus, Alouatta or Trachypithecus. This suggests that the fossil taxa did not have diets dominated by tough foods either, or if they did that directions of tooth -tooth movement were less constrained than in higher cusped and sharper crested extant primate grass eaters and folivores.

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Dental microwear and diets of African early Homo

Cited by 90 publications

References 109 publications

What Insights Can Baboon Feeding Ecology Provide for Early Hominin Niche Differentiation?

What Insights Can Baboon Feeding Ecology Provide for Early Hominin Niche Differentiation?

Mechanical Properties of Plant Underground Storage Organs and Implications for Dietary Models of Early Hominins

Molar microwear textures and the diets ofAustralopithecus anamensisandAustralopithecus afarensis

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