Tooth chipping can reveal the diet and bite forces of fossil hominins

Constantino, Paul J.; Lee, James Jin-Wu; Chai, Herzl; Zipfel, Bernhard; Ziscovici, Charles; Lawn, Brian R.; Lucas, Peter W.

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2010.0304

Cited by 117 publications

(144 citation statements)

References 28 publications

(30 reference statements)

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“…However, we saw no evidence of them and they appear to be suppressed by enamel structure [39]. Instead, abrasion is likely to be the result of median cracks that turn towards the enamel surface, as is also seen in larger-scale chipping events [42]. The release of enamel chips via abrasion may rub the parental surface.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Mechanisms and causes of wear in tooth enamel: implications for hominin diets

Lucas

Omar

Al‐Fadhalah

et al. 2013

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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241

303

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The wear of teeth is a major factor limiting mammalian lifespans in the wild. One method of describing worn surfaces, dental microwear texture analysis, has proved powerful for reconstructing the diets of extinct vertebrates, but has yielded unexpected results in early hominins. In particular, although australopiths exhibit derived craniodental features interpreted as adaptations for eating hard foods, most do not exhibit microwear signals indicative of this diet. However, no experiments have yet demonstrated the fundamental mechanisms and causes of this wear. Here, we report nanowear experiments where individual dust particles, phytoliths and enamel chips were slid across a flat enamel surface. Microwear features produced were influenced strongly by interacting mechanical properties and particle geometry. Quartz dust was a rigid abrasive, capable of fracturing and removing enamel pieces. By contrast, phytoliths and enamel chips deformed during sliding, forming U-shaped grooves or flat troughs in enamel, without tissue loss. Other plant tissues seem too soft to mark enamel, acting as particle transporters. We conclude that dust has overwhelming importance as a wear agent and that dietary signals preserved in dental microwear are indirect. Nanowear studies should resolve controversies over adaptive trends in mammals like enamel thickening or hypsodonty that delay functional dental loss.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Mechanisms and causes of wear in tooth enamel: implications for hominin diets

Lucas

Omar

Al‐Fadhalah

et al. 2013

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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241

303

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“…Multiple lines of evidence from skull shape, tooth macro-and microstructure, and tooth enamel chipping, microwear and texture analysis support the hypothesis that robust australopiths consumed at least some 'hard' (fail to fracture under high loads) or stress-limited (non-compliant, i.e. stiff and brittle or stiff and tough) foods [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] (but see [9]). As in these hominins, the relatively enlarged and heavily pitted molars in H. stenognathus suggest that it too ate stress-limited food items [10 -12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

The Hadropithecus conundrum reconsidered, with implications for interpreting diet in fossil hominins

2011

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The fossil 'monkey lemur' Hadropithecus stenognathus has long excited palaeontologists because its skull bears an astonishing resemblance to those of robust australopiths, an enigmatic side branch of the human family tree. Multiple lines of evidence point to the likelihood that these australopiths ate at least some 'hard', stress-limited food items, but conflicting data from H. stenognathus pose a conundrum. While its hominin-like craniofacial architecture is suggestive of an ability to generate high bite forces, details of its tooth structure suggest that it was not well equipped to withstand the forces imposed by cracking hard objects. Here, we use three-dimensional digital reconstructions and finite-element analysis to test the hard-object processing hypothesis. We show that Archaeolemur sp. cf. A. edwardsi, a longerfaced close relative of H. stenognathus that lacked hominin convergences, was probably capable of breaking apart large, stress-limited food items, while Hadropithecus was better suited to processing small, displacement-limited (tougher but more compliant) foods. Our suggestion that H. stenognathus was not a hardobject feeder has bearing on the interpretation of hominin cranial architecture; the features shared by H. stenognathus and robust australopiths do not necessarily reflect adaptations for hard-object processing.

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“…Indeed, there is no evidence beyond the anecdotal [e.g., the broken left first permanent molar crown in the KNM-ER 729 P. boisei mandible (8) and the observation that a couple of P. boisei molars show antemortem enamel chipping (25)] that these food items were hard.…”

Section: The δmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diet of Paranthropus boisei in the early Pleistocene of East Africa

Cerling

Mbua

Kirera

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

266

221

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The East African hominin Paranthropus boisei was characterized by a suite of craniodental features that have been widely interpreted as adaptations to a diet that consisted of hard objects that required powerful peak masticatory loads. These morphological adaptations represent the culmination of an evolutionary trend that began in earlier taxa such as Australopithecus afarensis, and presumably facilitated utilization of open habitats in the Plio-Pleistocene. Here, we use stable isotopes to show that P. boisei had a diet that was dominated by C 4 biomass such as grasses or sedges. Its diet included more C 4 biomass than any other hominin studied to date, including its congener Paranthropus robustus from South Africa. These results, coupled with recent evidence from dental microwear, may indicate that the remarkable craniodental morphology of this taxon represents an adaptation for processing large quantities of low-quality vegetation rather than hard objects.C4 photosynthesis | C3 photosynthesis T he East African hominin Paranthropus boisei possessed large and low-cusped postcanine dentition, large and thick mandibular corpora, and powerful muscles of mastication, which are generally believed to be adaptations for a diet of nuts, seeds, and hard fruit (1-3). This notion emerged from interpretations of P. boisei's morphology, but gained indirect support from dental microwear studies of its congener, Paranthropus robustus; these concluded that wear on the molars of South African Paranthropus was consistent with its having ingested and chewed small, hard food items, if not as primary resources, then at least as fallback foods (4-6). Although some have suggested that the craniodental morphology of P. boisei is consistent with the consumption of tough rather than hard foods (7,8), this idea has been largely eschewed by most workers. Thus, when a recent study using dental microwear texture analysis revealed no evidence for the consumption of hard foods by P. boisei (9), it challenged decades of received wisdom, and underscored the need for independent lines of paleodietary evidence.Stable carbon isotope analysis has proven a powerful tool for testing hypotheses about the diets of extinct herbivorous mammals (10, 11). It is based on the idea that carbon isotope compositions vary predictably between plant foods [e.g., plants using the C 3 photosynthetic pathway (most dicotyledonous plants including trees, shrubs, forbs, herbs) and those using the C 4 pathway (predominantly tropical grasses and sedges, which are monocotyledonous plants)], and further that dietary carbon remains locked in tooth enamel even after millions of years (10). Carbon isotope studies of P. robustus from South Africa indicated that it consumed some plants using C 4 photosynthesis such as tropical grasses or sedges, but were also consistent with most of its dietary carbon (approximately 70%) having been derived from the C 3 food items favored by extant chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) such as tree fruits (12, 13). In contrast, stable isotopes measuremen...

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Tooth chipping can reveal the diet and bite forces of fossil hominins

Cited by 117 publications

References 28 publications

Mechanisms and causes of wear in tooth enamel: implications for hominin diets

Mechanisms and causes of wear in tooth enamel: implications for hominin diets

The Hadropithecus conundrum reconsidered, with implications for interpreting diet in fossil hominins

Diet of Paranthropus boisei in the early Pleistocene of East Africa

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