Cargando…

Dental wear patterns reveal dietary ecology and season of death in a historical chimpanzee population

Dental wear analyses have been widely used to interpret the dietary ecology in primates. However, it remains unclear to what extent a combination of wear analyses acting at distinct temporal scales can be beneficial in interpreting the tooth use of primates with a high variation in their intraspecif...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Stuhlträger, Julia, Schulz-Kornas, Ellen, Kullmer, Ottmar, Janocha, Marcel M., Wittig, Roman M., Kupczik, Kornelius
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8109778/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33970963
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251309
_version_ 1783690230908321792
author Stuhlträger, Julia
Schulz-Kornas, Ellen
Kullmer, Ottmar
Janocha, Marcel M.
Wittig, Roman M.
Kupczik, Kornelius
author_facet Stuhlträger, Julia
Schulz-Kornas, Ellen
Kullmer, Ottmar
Janocha, Marcel M.
Wittig, Roman M.
Kupczik, Kornelius
author_sort Stuhlträger, Julia
collection PubMed
description Dental wear analyses have been widely used to interpret the dietary ecology in primates. However, it remains unclear to what extent a combination of wear analyses acting at distinct temporal scales can be beneficial in interpreting the tooth use of primates with a high variation in their intraspecific dietary ecology. Here, we combine macroscopic tooth wear (occlusal fingerprint analysis, long-term signals) with microscopic 3D surface textures (short-term signals) exploring the tooth use of a historical western chimpanzee population from northeastern Liberia with no detailed dietary records. We compare our results to previously published tooth wear and feeding data of the extant and continually monitored chimpanzees of Taї National Park in Ivory Coast. Macroscopic tooth wear results from molar wear facets of the Liberian population indicate only slightly less wear when compared to the Taї population. This suggests similar long-term feeding behavior between both populations. In contrast, 3D surface texture results show that Liberian chimpanzees have many and small microscopic wear facet features that group them with those Taї chimpanzees that knowingly died during dry periods. This coincides with historical accounts, which indicate that local tribes poached and butchered the Liberian specimens during dust-rich dry periods. In addition, Liberian females and males differ somewhat in their 3D surface textures, with females having more microscopic peaks, smaller hill and dale areas and slightly rougher wear facet surfaces than males. This suggests a higher consumption of insects in Liberian females compared to males, based on similar 3D surface texture patterns previously reported for Taї chimpanzees. Our study opens new options for uncovering details of feeding behaviors of chimpanzees and other living and fossil primates, with macroscopic tooth wear tracing the long-term dietary and environmental history of a single population and microscopic tooth wear addressing short-term changes (e.g. seasonality).
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8109778
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-81097782021-05-21 Dental wear patterns reveal dietary ecology and season of death in a historical chimpanzee population Stuhlträger, Julia Schulz-Kornas, Ellen Kullmer, Ottmar Janocha, Marcel M. Wittig, Roman M. Kupczik, Kornelius PLoS One Research Article Dental wear analyses have been widely used to interpret the dietary ecology in primates. However, it remains unclear to what extent a combination of wear analyses acting at distinct temporal scales can be beneficial in interpreting the tooth use of primates with a high variation in their intraspecific dietary ecology. Here, we combine macroscopic tooth wear (occlusal fingerprint analysis, long-term signals) with microscopic 3D surface textures (short-term signals) exploring the tooth use of a historical western chimpanzee population from northeastern Liberia with no detailed dietary records. We compare our results to previously published tooth wear and feeding data of the extant and continually monitored chimpanzees of Taї National Park in Ivory Coast. Macroscopic tooth wear results from molar wear facets of the Liberian population indicate only slightly less wear when compared to the Taї population. This suggests similar long-term feeding behavior between both populations. In contrast, 3D surface texture results show that Liberian chimpanzees have many and small microscopic wear facet features that group them with those Taї chimpanzees that knowingly died during dry periods. This coincides with historical accounts, which indicate that local tribes poached and butchered the Liberian specimens during dust-rich dry periods. In addition, Liberian females and males differ somewhat in their 3D surface textures, with females having more microscopic peaks, smaller hill and dale areas and slightly rougher wear facet surfaces than males. This suggests a higher consumption of insects in Liberian females compared to males, based on similar 3D surface texture patterns previously reported for Taї chimpanzees. Our study opens new options for uncovering details of feeding behaviors of chimpanzees and other living and fossil primates, with macroscopic tooth wear tracing the long-term dietary and environmental history of a single population and microscopic tooth wear addressing short-term changes (e.g. seasonality). Public Library of Science 2021-05-10 /pmc/articles/PMC8109778/ /pubmed/33970963 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251309 Text en © 2021 Stuhlträger et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Stuhlträger, Julia
Schulz-Kornas, Ellen
Kullmer, Ottmar
Janocha, Marcel M.
Wittig, Roman M.
Kupczik, Kornelius
Dental wear patterns reveal dietary ecology and season of death in a historical chimpanzee population
title Dental wear patterns reveal dietary ecology and season of death in a historical chimpanzee population
title_full Dental wear patterns reveal dietary ecology and season of death in a historical chimpanzee population
title_fullStr Dental wear patterns reveal dietary ecology and season of death in a historical chimpanzee population
title_full_unstemmed Dental wear patterns reveal dietary ecology and season of death in a historical chimpanzee population
title_short Dental wear patterns reveal dietary ecology and season of death in a historical chimpanzee population
title_sort dental wear patterns reveal dietary ecology and season of death in a historical chimpanzee population
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8109778/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33970963
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251309
work_keys_str_mv AT stuhltragerjulia dentalwearpatternsrevealdietaryecologyandseasonofdeathinahistoricalchimpanzeepopulation
AT schulzkornasellen dentalwearpatternsrevealdietaryecologyandseasonofdeathinahistoricalchimpanzeepopulation
AT kullmerottmar dentalwearpatternsrevealdietaryecologyandseasonofdeathinahistoricalchimpanzeepopulation
AT janochamarcelm dentalwearpatternsrevealdietaryecologyandseasonofdeathinahistoricalchimpanzeepopulation
AT wittigromanm dentalwearpatternsrevealdietaryecologyandseasonofdeathinahistoricalchimpanzeepopulation
AT kupczikkornelius dentalwearpatternsrevealdietaryecologyandseasonofdeathinahistoricalchimpanzeepopulation