Dental Diet Analysis

Diets are influential of growth quality and leave imprints on enamel. Consumed substances can have selective effects on different regions of each particular tooth. This can be seen by looking at the topographical variances that are caused by mastication patterns from diets. Mastication forces are applied more heavily in certain areas, where areas of greater thickness endure greater mastication forces. Average enamel thickness, determined with more precise measurements, gave more detailed characteristics for the varying degrees of intermediate thickness and thinness (Kono, 2004). It was seen that Pongo had thicker intermediate enamel in comparison to gorilla, who are two different genus of the hominidae family. Pongo had a diet consisting of hard fruits such as seeds, known as a frugivorous species, that are associated with cusps that are not steep. Gorillas have shearing-formed cusps which were assumed to be adapted from their folivorous diet, consisting of leaves. (Kono, 2004). More specifically, thicker enamel was paired with lower standing cusps, similar to modern humans (Olejniczak, 2008). This arrangement can be analyzed to determine the success in fitness because longer …show more content…
If the enamel had been worn down to the point of infection, or had a comparably short developmental time, there may not have been enough intake in nutrition for somatic proliferation. There was a slight correlation found in somatic growth with the maturation of molars, but not in anterior teeth (Dean, 2010). Molar development can help distinguish the difference in somatic growth in differing maturation times. It takes 12 years for a great ape to fully develop; however, in modern humans it takes 18, providing a standard in determining pubescent fossils (Dean, 2006). In the time it takes a great ape to mature, it will not have reached the tissue complexity that maturing humans will