Tooth chipping can reveal the diet and bite forces of fossil hominins

Journal article

P. Constantino, J. Lee, H. Chai, B. Zipfel, Charles Ziscovici, B. Lawn, P. Lucas
Biology Letters, 2010

Cite

APA Click to copy
Constantino, P., Lee, J., Chai, H., Zipfel, B., Ziscovici, C., Lawn, B., & Lucas, P. (2010). Tooth chipping can reveal the diet and bite forces of fossil hominins. Biology Letters.

Chicago/Turabian Click to copy
Constantino, P., J. Lee, H. Chai, B. Zipfel, Charles Ziscovici, B. Lawn, and P. Lucas. “Tooth Chipping Can Reveal the Diet and Bite Forces of Fossil Hominins.” Biology Letters (2010).

MLA Click to copy
Constantino, P., et al. “Tooth Chipping Can Reveal the Diet and Bite Forces of Fossil Hominins.” Biology Letters, 2010.

BibTeX Click to copy

@article{p2010a,
  title = {Tooth chipping can reveal the diet and bite forces of fossil hominins},
  year = {2010},
  journal = {Biology Letters},
  author = {Constantino, P. and Lee, J. and Chai, H. and Zipfel, B. and Ziscovici, Charles and Lawn, B. and Lucas, P.}
}

Abstract

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 that dental microwear and isotopic analysis are unlikely to detect.