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Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Biological and Physical Anthropology
Adaptation To Hard-Object Feeding In Sea Otters And Hominins, Paul Constantino, James Lee, Dylan Morris, Peter Lucas, Adam Hartstone-Rose, Wah-Keat Lee, Nathaniel Dominy, Andrew Cunningham, Mark Wagner, Brian Lawn
Adaptation To Hard-Object Feeding In Sea Otters And Hominins, Paul Constantino, James Lee, Dylan Morris, Peter Lucas, Adam Hartstone-Rose, Wah-Keat Lee, Nathaniel Dominy, Andrew Cunningham, Mark Wagner, Brian Lawn
Paul J. Constantino
The large, bunodont postcanine teeth in living sea otters (Enhydra lutris) have been likened to those of certain fossil hominins, particularly the ’robust’ australopiths (genus Paranthropus). We examine this evolutionary convergence by conducting fracture experiments on extracted molar teeth of sea otters and modern humans (Homo sapiens) to determine how load-bearing capacity relates to tooth morphology and enamel material properties. In situ optical microscopy and x-ray imaging during simulated occlusal loading reveal the nature of the fracture patterns. Explicit fracture relations are used to analyze the data and to extrapolate the results from humans to earlier hominins. It is shown …
Properties Of Tooth Enamel In Great Apes, Paul Constantino, Brian Lawn, James Lee, Peter Lucas, Dylan Morris, Tanya Smith
Properties Of Tooth Enamel In Great Apes, Paul Constantino, Brian Lawn, James Lee, Peter Lucas, Dylan Morris, Tanya Smith
Paul J. Constantino
A comparative study has been made of human and great ape molar tooth enamel. Nanoindentation techniques are used to map profiles of elastic modulus and hardness across sections from the enamel–dentin junction to the outer tooth surface. The measured data profiles overlap between species, suggesting a degree of commonality in material properties. Using established deformation and fracture relations, critical loads to produce function-threatening damage in the enamel of each species are calculated for characteristic tooth sizes and enamel thicknesses. The results suggest that differences in load-bearing capacity of molar teeth in primates are less a function of underlying material properties …
Tooth Chipping Can Reveal The Diet And Bite Forces Of Fossil Hominins, Paul J. Constantino, James Jin-Wu Lee, Herzl Chai, Bernhard Zipfel, Charles Ziscovici, Brian R. Lawn, Peter W. Lucas
Tooth Chipping Can Reveal The Diet And Bite Forces Of Fossil Hominins, Paul J. Constantino, James Jin-Wu Lee, Herzl Chai, Bernhard Zipfel, Charles Ziscovici, Brian R. Lawn, Peter W. Lucas
Biological Sciences Faculty Research
Mammalian tooth enamel is often chipped, providing clear evidence for localized contacts with large hard food objects. Here, we apply a simple fracture equation to estimate peak bite forces directly from chip size. Many fossil hominins exhibit antemortem chips on their posterior teeth, indicating their use of high bite forces. The inference that these species must have consumed large hard foods such as seeds is supported by the occurrence of similar chips among known modern-day seed predators such as orangutans and peccaries. The existence of tooth chip signatures also provides a way of identifying the consumption of rarely eaten foods …