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Teeth represent an essential component of the foraging apparatus for any mammal, and tooth wear can have significant implications for survival and reproduction. This study focuses on tooth wear in wild baboons in Amboseli, southern Kenya. We obtained mandibular and maxillary tooth impressions from 95 baboons and analyzed digital images of replicas made from these impressions. We measured tooth wear as the percent dentine exposure (PDE, the percent of the occlusal surface on which dentine was exposed), and we examined the relationship of PDE to age, behavior, and life history variables. We found that PDE increased significantly with age for both sexes in all three molar types. In females, we also tested the hypotheses that long-term patterns of feeding behavior, social dominance rank, and one measure of maternal investment (the cumulative number of months that a female had dependent infants during her lifetime) would predict tooth wear when we controlled for age. The hypothesis that feeding behavior predicted tooth wear was supported. The percent of feeding time spent consuming grass corms predicted PDE when controlling for age. However, PDE was not associated with social dominance rank or maternal investment. Am J Phys Anthropol 000:000-000, 2010. Keywords aging; feeding behavior; foraging; Papio cynocephalusTeeth represent an essential component of the foraging apparatus for any mammal and tooth wear can have significant implications for survival and reproduction (Lanyon and Sanson, 1986;Buss, 1990;Logan and Sanson, 2002;Hillson, 2005;King et al., 2005;Veiberg et al., 2007). Data from a number of mammal species provide evidence for the adaptive importance of teeth, the functional significance of tooth wear, and the relationship between tooth wear and age. For instance, rodents have ever growing incisors and their foraging behavior results in constant wearing and sharpening, which in turn results in the teeth being kept at a constant height in the jaw throughout life (Hillson, 2005). Further, Williams and Kay (2001) found that rodent species adapted to more abrasive diets, such as grass, had relatively higher molar crowns than other rodents. Among roe deer, those with larger teeth (Veiberg et al., 2007). Elephants provide another example. After the sixth set of teeth is worn to a point about half its original height, the animal can no longer masticate food adequately; thus elephants rarely live beyond this stage of tooth wear (Buss, 1990). Tooth wear also has been related to individual fitness in one study of primates. King et al., (2005) found that in sifakas (Propithecus edwardsi), older females lost their infants at higher rates than younger females. They argued that tooth wear in older females was likely to be an important factor in this relationship. One attempt to replicate this study in another species (deer) failed to find an effect of tooth wear on infant survival (Nussey et al., 2007). Nonetheless, these examples highlight the importance of having functional teeth in mammals and even connect l...
Teeth represent an essential component of the foraging apparatus for any mammal, and tooth wear can have significant implications for survival and reproduction. This study focuses on tooth wear in wild baboons in Amboseli, southern Kenya. We obtained mandibular and maxillary tooth impressions from 95 baboons and analyzed digital images of replicas made from these impressions. We measured tooth wear as the percent dentine exposure (PDE, the percent of the occlusal surface on which dentine was exposed), and we examined the relationship of PDE to age, behavior, and life history variables. We found that PDE increased significantly with age for both sexes in all three molar types. In females, we also tested the hypotheses that long-term patterns of feeding behavior, social dominance rank, and one measure of maternal investment (the cumulative number of months that a female had dependent infants during her lifetime) would predict tooth wear when we controlled for age. The hypothesis that feeding behavior predicted tooth wear was supported. The percent of feeding time spent consuming grass corms predicted PDE when controlling for age. However, PDE was not associated with social dominance rank or maternal investment. Am J Phys Anthropol 000:000-000, 2010. Keywords aging; feeding behavior; foraging; Papio cynocephalusTeeth represent an essential component of the foraging apparatus for any mammal and tooth wear can have significant implications for survival and reproduction (Lanyon and Sanson, 1986;Buss, 1990;Logan and Sanson, 2002;Hillson, 2005;King et al., 2005;Veiberg et al., 2007). Data from a number of mammal species provide evidence for the adaptive importance of teeth, the functional significance of tooth wear, and the relationship between tooth wear and age. For instance, rodents have ever growing incisors and their foraging behavior results in constant wearing and sharpening, which in turn results in the teeth being kept at a constant height in the jaw throughout life (Hillson, 2005). Further, Williams and Kay (2001) found that rodent species adapted to more abrasive diets, such as grass, had relatively higher molar crowns than other rodents. Among roe deer, those with larger teeth (Veiberg et al., 2007). Elephants provide another example. After the sixth set of teeth is worn to a point about half its original height, the animal can no longer masticate food adequately; thus elephants rarely live beyond this stage of tooth wear (Buss, 1990). Tooth wear also has been related to individual fitness in one study of primates. King et al., (2005) found that in sifakas (Propithecus edwardsi), older females lost their infants at higher rates than younger females. They argued that tooth wear in older females was likely to be an important factor in this relationship. One attempt to replicate this study in another species (deer) failed to find an effect of tooth wear on infant survival (Nussey et al., 2007). Nonetheless, these examples highlight the importance of having functional teeth in mammals and even connect l...
Buccal-dental microwear depends on the abrasive content of chewed foodstuffs and can reveal long-term dietary trends in human populations. However, in vivo experimental analyses of buccal microwear formation processes are scarce. Here, we report the effects of an abrasive diet on microwear rates in two adult volunteers at intervals of 8 days over a period of 1 month and document long-term turnover over 5 consecutive years in the same subjects under an ad libitum Mediterranean diet. Buccal microwear was analyzed on mandibular first molars using high-resolution replicas and scanning electron microscopy. Microwear turnover was assessed by recording the scratches lost and gained at each time point. Our results indicate that scratch formation on enamel surfaces increased with a highly abrasive diet compared to both pre-test and post-test ad libitum dietary controls. In the long-term analysis, scratch turnover was higher than expected, but no significant long-term trends in microwear density or length were observed, because microwear formation was compensated by scratch disappearance. Our results confirm that buccal microwear patterns on mandibular molars show a dynamic formation process directly related to the chewing of abrasive particles along with ingested food. In addition, the observed long-term stability of buccal microwear patterns makes them a reliable indicator of overall dietary habits.
Determining the diet of an extinct species is paramount in any attempt to reconstruct its paleoecology. Because the distribution and mechanical properties of food items may impact postcranial, cranial, mandibular, and dental morphologies related to their procurement, ingestion, and mastication, these anatomical attributes have been studied intensively. However, while mechanical environments influence skeletal and dental features, it is not clear to what extent they dictate particular morphologies. Although biomechanical explanations have been widely applied to extinct hominins in attempts to retrodict dietary proclivities, morphology may say as much about what they were capable of eating, and perhaps more about phylogenetic history, than about the nature of the diet. Anatomical attributes may establish boundary limits, but direct evidence left by the foods that were actually (rather than hypothetically) consumed is required to reconstruct diet. Dental microwear and the stable light isotope chemistry of tooth enamel provide such evidence, and are especially powerful when used in tandem. We review the foundations for microwear and biogeochemistry in diet reconstruction, and discuss this evidence for six early hominin species (Ardipithecus ramidus, Australopithecus anamensis, Au. afarensis, Au. africanus, Paranthropus robustus, and P. boisei). The dietary signals derived from microwear and isotope chemistry are sometimes at odds with inferences from biomechanical approaches, a potentially disquieting conundrum that is particularly evident for several species.
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