Dental Microwear and Diet of the Plio-Pleistocene Hominin Paranthropus boisei
Top Cited Papers
Open Access
- 30 April 2008
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Public Library of Science (PLoS) in PLOS ONE
- Vol. 3 (4), e2044
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0002044
Abstract
The Plio-Pleistocene hominin Paranthropus boisei had enormous, flat, thickly enameled cheek teeth, a robust cranium and mandible, and inferred massive, powerful chewing muscles. This specialized morphology, which earned P. boisei the nickname “Nutcracker Man”, suggests that this hominin could have consumed very mechanically challenging foods. It has been recently argued, however, that specialized hominin morphology may indicate adaptations for the consumption of occasional fallback foods rather than preferred resources. Dental microwear offers a potential means by which to test this hypothesis in that it reflects actual use rather than genetic adaptation. High microwear surface texture complexity and anisotropy in extant primates can be associated with the consumption of exceptionally hard and tough foods respectively. Here we present the first quantitative analysis of dental microwear for P. boisei. Seven specimens examined preserved unobscured antemortem molar microwear. These all show relatively low complexity and anisotropy values. This suggests that none of the individuals consumed especially hard or tough foods in the days before they died. The apparent discrepancy between microwear and functional anatomy is consistent with the idea that P. boisei presents a hominin example of Liem's Paradox, wherein a highly derived morphology need not reflect a specialized diet.This publication has 28 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Evolution of Zinjanthropus boiseiEvolutionary Anthropology, 2007
- Isotopic Evidence for Dietary Variability in the Early Hominin Paranthropus robustusScience, 2006
- The behavioral ecology of sympatric African apes: implications for understanding fossil hominoid ecologyPrimates, 2005
- The rise of the hominids as an adaptive shift in fallback foods: Plant underground storage organs (USOs) and australopith originsJournal of Human Evolution, 2005
- Dental microwear texture analysis shows within-species diet variability in fossil homininsNature, 2005
- Africa's wild C4 plant foods and possible early hominid dietsJournal of Human Evolution, 2005
- Multiplicity Considerations in the Design and Analysis of Clinical TrialsJournal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A: Statistics in Society, 1996
- Teeth, sex and speciesNature, 1991
- Diet and teeth: Dietary hypotheses and human evolutionPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences, 1981
- The Seed-Eaters: A New Model of Hominid Differentiation Based on a Baboon AnalogyMan, 1970