Person:

Smith, Tanya

Dental enamel thickness has received considerable attention in ecological models of the adaptive significance of primate morphology. Several authors have theorized that the degree of enamel thickness may reflect selective pressures related to the consumption of fallback foods (dietary items that may require complex processing and/or have low nutritional value) during times of preferred food scarcity. Others have speculated that enamel thickness reflects selection during mastication of foods with particular material properties (i.e., toughness and hardness). Orangutans prefer ripe fruit when available, but show interspecific and sex differences in the consumption of fallback foods (bark, leaves, and figs) and other preferred foods (certain seeds). Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) have also been reported to masticate more mechanically demanding foods than Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii). To test these ecological models, we assessed two-dimensional enamel thickness in orangutan full dentitions using established histological and virtual quantification methods. No significant differences in average enamel thickness (AET) were found between species. We found significant differences in the components of enamel thickness indices between sexes, with males showing greater enamel-dentine junction lengths and dentine core areas, and thus relatively thinner enamel than females. Comparisons of individuals of known sex and species revealed a dentition-wide trend for Bornean females to show greater AET than Sumatran females. Differences between small samples of males were less evident. These data provide only limited support for ecological explanations of enamel thickness patterns within great ape genera. Future studies of dietary ecology and enamel thickness should consider sex differences more systematically.

Enamel thickness has played an important role in studies of primate taxonomy, phylogeny, and functional morphology, although its variation among hominins is poorly understood. Macaques parallel hominins in their widespread geographic distribution, relative range of body sizes, and radiation during the last five million years. To explore enamel thickness variation, we quantified average and relative enamel thickness (AET and RET) in Macaca arctoides, Macaca fascicularis, Macaca fuscata, Macaca mulatta, Macaca nemestrina, and Macaca sylvanus. Enamel area, dentine area, and enamel-dentine junction length were measured from mesial sections of 386 molars scanned with micro-computed tomography, yielding AET and RET indices. Intraspecific sex differences were not found in AET or RET. Macaca fuscata had the highest AET and RET, M. fascicularis showed the lowest AET, and M. arctoides had the lowest RET. The latitudinal distribution of macaque species was associated with AET for these six species. Temperate macaques had thicker molar enamel than did tropical macaques, suggesting that thick enamel may be adaptive in seasonal environments. Additional research is needed to determine if thick enamel in temperate macaques is a response to intensified hard-object feeding, increased abrasion, and/or a broader diet with a greater range of food material properties. The extreme ecological flexibility of macaques may prohibit identification of consistent trends between specific diets and enamel thickness conditions. Such complications of interpretation of ecological variability, dietary diversity, and enamel thickness may similarly apply for fossil Homo species.