Forest Floor Leaf Cover as a Barrier for Dust Accumulation in Tai National Park: Implications for Primate Dental Wear Studies

Geissler, Elise; Daegling, David J.; McGraw, W. Scott

doi:10.1007/s10764-018-0060-8

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 62 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Environmental grit has been suggested as responsible for inflating chipping prevalence in fossil and extant primates (Fannin et al, 2020; Towle et al, 2017). A variety of factors will influence the likelihood of a species incorporating grit into their diet, including canopy height, local soil composition, leaf litter cover, local climate, food items consumed, pre‐mastication food processing behaviors, and deliberate soil consumption (Fannin et al, 2020; Galbany et al, 2014; Geissler et al, 2018; Phillips‐Conroy et al, 2000; Wakibara et al, 2001). The results of the present study potentially support a link between increased chipping prevalence and grit mastication, with terrestrial foraging species displaying high chipping prevalence, ranging from 20% to over 35% (e.g., mandrills, Japanese macaques, and hamadryas baboons).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tooth chipping prevalence and patterns in extant primates

Towle

Loch

2021

American J Phys Anthropol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objectives A tooth chip occurs when a hard object forcefully contacts the surface of the tooth, typically removing enamel from the occlusal edge. In this study, chipping patterns in extant primates were compared, and hard‐object‐feeding assessed alongside other factors (e.g., grit mastication and dental properties), to elucidate dietary and behavioral inferences in archeological and paleontological samples. Materials and methods Thirteen species of extant primates were studied, including eight species within the Cercopithecidae, two within the Ceboidea, and three within the Hominoidea. Four additional species were also incorporated from the literature for some of the analyses. The severity (Grade 1–3), position (buccal, lingual, mesial, and distal) and number of tooth fractures were recorded for each specimen. Results Species considered hard‐object‐feeding specialists presented higher rates of chipping, with sakis, mandrills, sooty mangabeys and Raffles' banded langurs having high chipping rates (28.3%, 36.7%, 48.4%, and 34.7% of teeth, respectively). Species that seasonally eat harder foods had intermediate chipping frequencies (e.g., brown woolly monkeys: 18.5%), and those that less commonly consume hard food items had the lowest chipping frequencies (e.g., Kloss gibbon: 7.3%; chimpanzees: 4.4%). Discussion The results suggest hard food mastication influences differences in chipping prevalence among the species studied. Although Homo fossil samples show high rates of chipping comparable to hard‐object‐feeding extant primates, they display a different pattern of chipping, supporting the hypothesis that these fractures are mostly non‐food related (e.g., grit mastication in Homo naledi; non‐masticatory tooth use in Neanderthals).

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tooth chipping prevalence and patterns in extant primates

Towle

Loch

2021

American J Phys Anthropol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Volcanic ash can range from 49% to 77% SiO 2 by weight 6 and can contain hard crystals of plagioclase feldspar, pyroxene, and olivine 7 . Grit evades easy definition, but it is evident that biological anthropologists have two working conceptions of it: (1) grit can be the sum total of particulate matter on a food surface 8 or (2) it is crystalline quartz, an enamel‐damaging form of SiO 2 2,3 . For foraging primates, the total amount of sensate particulate matter (the attribute that we call grittiness) probably predicts the amount of crystalline quartz, but we do not know, and this ignorance is an impediment to progress in the field of primate dental ecology.…”

Section: What Is Grit?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These foods are often visibly contaminated with high levels of crystalline quartz, although quantitative data are few. Geissler et al 8 found that fruits and nuts buried under and within the leaf litter were twice as “gritty” (though the nature of this particulate matter was unexplored) as leaf surfaces between 0 and 5 cm, and up to 5 m, from the ground. They argued that leaf litter impedes the upward mobility of grit from the underlying soil, itself a source of variation across primate habitats.…”

Section: Ecology Of Gritmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grit and consequence

Fannin

Singels

Esler

et al. 2021

Evolutionary Anthropology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Grit is implicated in several biological phenomena—it wears teeth, it fractures teeth, it drives tooth evolution, it elicits complex manual manipulations—any one of which could be described as a central topic in evolutionary anthropology. But what is grit? We hardly know because we tend to privilege the consequences of grit (it is abrasive) over its formal features, all but ignoring crucial variables such as mineral composition, material properties, and particle geometry (size, angularity), not to mention natural variation in the habitats of primates and their food surfaces. Few topics have animated so much debate and invited such cool indifference at the same time. Our goal here is to shine a light on grit, to put a philosophical lens on the nature of our discourse, and to call attention to large empirical voids that should be filled and folded into our understanding of primate natural history and evolution.

show abstract

“…Taxa of this sampling group do not completely avoid other mechanically challenging foods. For instance, sooty mangabeys collect grit-covered seeds from underneath the forest leaf-litter (Geissler et al, 2018) and grit is one of the main causes of dental wear (Schmidt, 2010). Nevertheless, the taxa of this sampling group are not specialized to consume particularly abrasive foods.…”

Section: Sample Taxamentioning

confidence: 99%

Dentin hardness differences across various mammalian taxa

Geissler

McGraw

Daegling

2021

Journal of Morphology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Differences in dentin microstructure have been used as a tool for dietary reconstruction; however, the extent that diet is associated with this aspect of dental morphology has yet to be empirically tested. We conducted microhardness tests of mammalian dentin sections, hypothesizing that species with adaptations to particularly hard diets would have softer dentin, owing to a higher proportion of soft intertubular dentin. Species adapted to abrasive diets, in contrast, should have harder dentin, resulting from a higher proportion of hypermineralized peritubular dentin. We examined molar dentin hardness in ten mammalian taxa with durophagous diets, abrasive diets, and a comparative "control" group of mechanical generalists. Samples included six primate taxa and four non-primate species representing various dietary regimes. Our results reveal significant variation among taxa in overall hardness, but the data do not distinguish between hard and abrasive diets. Several taxa with generalized (i.e., mechanically diverse) diets resemble each other in exhibiting large variance in hardness measurements and comparably soft dentin. The high variation in these species appears to be either a functional signal supporting the niche variation hypothesis or indicate the absence of sustained unidirectional selective pressure. A possible phylogenetic signal of dentin hardness in the data also holds promise for future systematic investigations.

show abstract

Forest Floor Leaf Cover as a Barrier for Dust Accumulation in Tai National Park: Implications for Primate Dental Wear Studies

Cited by 10 publications

References 62 publications

Tooth chipping prevalence and patterns in extant primates

Tooth chipping prevalence and patterns in extant primates

Grit and consequence

Dentin hardness differences across various mammalian taxa

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About