Dental Microwear and Diets of Plio-Pleistocene Hominids

了解我们化石祖先的饮食可以告诉我们很多关于他们的生物学和生态学，以及现代人适应吃的食物的种类。最近对现存灵长类动物的研究表明，饮食与牙齿上的微观磨损模式之间存在关系，牙齿微磨损可以帮助重建化石物种的饮食。这项研究将对410万到150万年前的人类祖先的牙齿微磨损进行全面的分析。埃塞俄比亚、肯尼亚、坦桑尼亚和南非的博物馆将对近1200颗牙齿进行检查和塑造。这些牙齿将用扫描电子显微镜进行检查。微小牙齿磨损的模式将被量化，并在原始人和一系列现存的灵长类动物中进行比较，以确定化石形式的饮食。这些结果将为人类起源研究中的关键问题提供新的视角。饮食在我们家族的起源和早期进化中扮演了什么角色？在早期原始人血统中，饮食是如何随着时间的推移而变化的？原始人在饮食上有地域差异吗？在同一时期生活在同一地点的原始人物种在饮食上是否有所不同？

Knowledge of the diets of our fossil ancestors can tell us much about their biology and ecology, and the sorts of foods modern humans are adapted to eat. Recent studies of living primates have shown relationships between diet and patterns of microscopic wear on teeth, and that dental microwear can help reconstruct the diets of fossil species. This study will involve a comprehensive analysis of dental microwear in our hominid forebearers dated to between 4.1 and 1.5 million years ago. Nearly 1200 teeth will be examined and molded at museums in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa. These teeth will be examined using a Scanning Electron Microscope. Patterns of microscopic tooth wear will be quantified and compared among the hominids and to a series of living primates to determine the diets of the fossil forms. Results will provide new perspectives on key questions in human origins research. What role did diet play in the origins and early evolution of our family? How did diet change through time in early hominid lineages? Were there geographic differences in diet among the hominids? Did hominid species that lived in the same place in the time period differ in their diets?