Effects of Tooth Use on Tooth Shape, Structure and Wear

牙齿使用对牙齿形状、结构和磨损的影响

• 批准号: 9601766
• 负责人: Mark Teaford
• 金额: $ 25.09万
• 依托单位: Johns Hopkins University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1996
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1996-08-01 至 2001-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9601766&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Effects; Tooth; Use; Shape; Structure

Paleobiologists have long had a keen interest in the diets of prehistoric creatures, because `diet` is the key to so many important questions in evolution. Of the techniques currently available for making dietary inferences, three (analyses of tooth shape, dental microstructure, and microscopic wear patterns on teeth) stand ready to yield new insights, if only better data from living animals with known diets can be gathered. The purpose of this study is to push each of these techniques closer to their paleobiological potential through a study of living primates with known diets. The animals to be studied will be from 35 social groups of howling monkeys, Alouatta palliata, living in patches of dry tropical forest at Hda. La Pacifica near Canas, Costa Rica. The howlers at La Pacifica have been the subject of behavioral observation for over 25 years. Thus their diet is known to vary from season to season, and between microhabitats at La Pacifica. It also includes a mixture of fruit and vegetation making it a good model of the diet of medium to large-sized fossil primates. Animals will be periodically captured and released, and while captured, high resolution copies of their teeth will be made. Scanning electron microscopy and 3-D digitizing of the dental replicas will yield new measurements of tooth microstructure, tooth shape, and tooth wear. In conjunction with analyses of food samples, stomach contents, fecal samples, and dust collected from the forest canopy, this study will document, once and for all, the functional implications of tooth wear in these animals. This work should lead to new insights into (1) changes in tooth use associated with both growth and development and changes in diet, (2) variations in dental microstructure, (3) causes of tooth wear, and (4) physical properties and phytolith content of Neotropical plants.

古生物学家长期以来对史前生物的饮食有着浓厚的兴趣，因为“饮食”是进化中许多重要问题的关键。 在目前可用于进行饮食推断的技术中，如果能够从已知饮食的活体动物身上收集到更好的数据，其中三种技术（牙齿形状、牙齿微观结构和牙齿微观磨损模式分析）随时可以产生新的见解。 这项研究的目的是通过对已知饮食的活体灵长类动物的研究，使这些技术更接近其古生物学潜力。 待研究的动物来自 35 个社会群体的嚎叫猴 (Alouatta palliata)，它们生活在 Hda 的干燥热带森林中。哥斯达黎加卡纳斯附近的拉帕西菲卡。 25 年来，拉帕西菲卡的嚎叫者一直是行为观察的对象。 因此，众所周知，它们的饮食会随着季节的变化以及拉帕西菲卡的微生境之间的变化而变化。它还包括水果和植物的混合物，使其成为中型到大型化石灵长类动物饮食的良好模型。 动物将被定期捕获和释放，在捕获时，将制作它们牙齿的高分辨率副本。 扫描电子显微镜和牙齿复制品的 3D 数字化将产生牙齿微观结构、牙齿形状和牙齿磨损的新测量结果。 结合对食物样本、胃内容物、粪便样本和从森林树冠收集的灰尘的分析，这项研究将一劳永逸地记录这些动物牙齿磨损的功能影响。 这项工作应该带来新的见解：（1）与生长发育和饮食变化相关的牙齿使用变化，（2）牙齿微观结构的变化，（3）牙齿磨损的原因，以及（4）新热带植物的物理特性和植硅体含量。