Developmental microscopic defects in the teeth of subhuman primates

What can developmental defects of enamel reveal about physiological stress in nonhuman primates?

“…4). This is consistent with the trend reported by Schuman and Sognnaes 44 for accentuated striae. These results suggest that developmental timing influences the distribution of defects across the primate order, although several other factors may be involved.…”

“…Perikymata are thus surface manifestations of underlying striae of Retzius. Hillson and Bond 44 have shown that linear enamel hypoplasias result when a "wider margin" than normal of "each brown stria plane is exposed" at the tooth surface (p. 97). Linear enamel hypoplasias are therefore surface remnants of a disturbance that affected one, and usually several, adjacent Retzius planes, leaving a furrow in the enamel surface that is larger than a normal perikymata groove (Box 3).…”

“…Schuman and Sognnaes' 44 1956 study remains the only large-scale comparative study of taxonomic variation in the presence of accentuated striae in nonhuman primates. These researchers reported that a majority of chimpanzee and some orangutan first and third molars had accentuated striae of Retzius, gorilla and gibbon molars had few, and rhesus monkey molars had hardly any.…”

“…30,34,37,38,44 The prevalence of linear enamel hypoplasia tends to be very low in prosimians 23,32 and to progressively increase from monkey, to gibbon, to great ape grades 22,23,32 (Table 1, Fig. 4).…”

Preferential expression of linear enamel hypoplasia on the sectorial premolars of rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta)

“…Most previous research in nonhuman primate LEH has focused either on interspecific variation in LEH incidence (Colyer, 1936(Colyer, , 1947Moggi-Cecchi and Crovella, 1991;Schuman and Sognnaes, 1956;Skinner and Guatelli-Steinberg, 1997;Vitzthum and Wikander, 1988) or on LEH in the Hominoidea (Eckhardt, 1992;Jones and Cave, 1960;Moggi-Cecchi and Crovella, 1991;Skinner, 1986;Skinner and Roksandic, 1995;Zhang, 1987). Less attention has been focused on LEH in the Cercopithecoidea, especially with respect to intertooth variation in LEH expression.…”