Dental Analysis for Dietary Reconstruction

饮食重建的牙科分析

• 批准号: 1945008
• 负责人: Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg
• 金额: $ 12.44万
• 依托单位: Ohio State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-01-15 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1945008&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dental; Analysis; Dietary; Reconstruction

Paleoanthropologists who seek to understand dietary adaptations in human ancestors study modern non-human primates to identify links between dental structure and function. Enamel, the hard, outer covering of a tooth, is one of the most scrutinized aspects of dental anatomy because it interacts with food directly. This research explores how the thickness and structure of tooth enamel, which appear to change over short evolutionary time periods, relate to specific aspects of diet and tooth function in primates. To achieve this goal, this research leverages a collection of primate skeletons housed at The Ohio State University, consisting of Old World monkey skeletons from various field sites. Data on diet and tooth use associated with these skeletal remains provides opportunities to investigate how enamel variation in living primates relates to critical features of their diets and oral processing behavior. As a result of this work, a large collection of microCT scans (~ 400 teeth) and histological slides (60-80 teeth) of primates will be made available, thus enhancing infrastructure for both research and education. Involvement and training of undergraduates in this project contributes to the development of a STEM workforce. Communication of project findings via The Ohio State University's Anthropology Public Outreach Program will increase public engagement with science and technology. Finally, this research is associated with a local project, which has environmental, health, and educational benefits to community members.This project fills gaps in paleoanthropologists’ understanding of how enamel evolves in response to specific aspects of diet and oral processing behavior. Currently, thick enamel in primates presents an ambiguous functional signal, suggesting adaptation to hard and/or abrasive diets. This research investigates whether aspects of enamel thickness distribution, and the angles that enamel prisms make with tooth wear surfaces, are associated with hard-object feeding (i.e., durophagy), potentially providing a basis for inferring adaptation to durophagy in fossil species. Further confounding paleoanthropological interpretation of enamel thickness is that thick enamel may signify adaptation to either habitual durophagy or to the consumption of hard foods only during periods when softer foods are not available, a so-called “fallback” feeding strategy. This work more fully assesses enamel thickness in primates that are habitual vs. fallback hard-food consumers, asking whether there are differences in enamel thickness distribution and/or enamel prism orientation related to these two adaptations. Additionally, investigating potential developmental differences in the thick enamel of species that belong to different evolutionary lineages elucidates developmental pathways underlying enamel's ability to evolve over short evolutionary time spans. Finally, previous studies have suggested that in leaf-eating primates, selection for thin enamel constrains the evolution of enamel; this project more fully assesses this suggestion using a sample of leaf-eating primates with wide dietary variation. Altogether, research into these related questions elucidates selection pressures shaping overall enamel thickness, enamel thickness distribution, and enamel structure, providing insight into evolvability and constraint in these features. In turn, these insights will form a more robust foundation for paleoanthropological inference about dietary adaptation gleaned from tooth enamel.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

寻求了解人类祖先饮食适应的古人类学家研究现代非人类隐私，以确定牙齿结构与功能之间的联系。牙釉质是牙齿的硬覆盖物，是牙齿解剖结构最严格的方面之一，因为它直接与食物相互作用。这项研究探讨了牙齿牙釉质的厚度和结构在短时间的进化时间内发生了变化，这与灵长类动物中饮食和牙齿功能的特定方面有关。为了实现这一目标，这项研究利用了俄亥俄州立大学中安置的灵长类动物骨骼的集合，其中包括来自各种野外地点的旧世界猴子骨骼。与这些骨骼遗物相关的饮食和牙齿使用数据提供了调查与饮食和口服加工行为有关的生物灵长类动物的搪瓷变化的机会。这项工作的结果是，将提供大量的Microct扫描（〜400颗牙齿）和组织学幻灯片（60-80齿）的素数，从而增强了研究和教育的基础设施。本项目的本科生的参与和培训有助于STEM劳动力的发展。通过俄亥俄州立大学的人类学公共外展计划进行项目发现的沟通将增加公众与科学技术的参与。最后，这项研究与一个本地项目有关，该项目对社区成员具有环境，健康和教育益处。该项目填补了古人类学家对搪瓷演变如何响应饮食和口服处理行为的特定方面的理解。目前，私人中的厚搪瓷表现出模棱两可的功能信号，表明适应了硬饮食和/或磨料饮食。这项研究调查了牙釉质厚度分布的各个方面以及牙釉质用牙齿磨损表面形成的角度是否与硬对象喂养（即粪便）有关，这可能提供了推断化石物种中对粪便的适应性的基础。进一步的混淆古人类学解释的牙釉质厚度是，厚搪瓷可能表明只有在没有较软的食物时才适应了习惯性疾病或仅在不可用的时期消费硬食品，这是一种所谓的“后备”喂养策略。这项工作更全面地评估了牙釉质厚度，即习惯性与后备硬食品消费者，询问牙釉质厚度分布和/或与这两种适应性相关的搪瓷棱镜取向是否存在差异。此外，研究属于不同进化谱系的物种厚的牙釉质的潜在发育差异阐明了搪瓷在短进化时间跨度上进化的能力的发展途径。最后，先前的研究表明，在食肉动物灵长类动物中，选择薄搪瓷会限制搪瓷的演变。该项目使用具有广泛饮食差异的叶叶灵长类动物的样本更全面地评估了这一建议。总体而言，对这些相关问题的研究阐明了选择压力，塑造了整体搪瓷厚度，搪瓷厚度分布和搪瓷结构，从而洞悉了这些特征的可发展性和约束。反过来，这些见解将为对牙齿搪瓷收集的饮食适应性的古人类学推论构成更强大的基础。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响来评估NSF的法定任务。

项目成果

Differences in maxillary premolar form between Cercocebus and Lophocebus

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103467
• 发表时间: 2023-11-22
• 期刊: JOURNAL OF HUMAN EVOLUTION
• 影响因子: 3.2
• 作者: Guatelli-Steinberg，Debbie;Gurian，Kaita;McGraw，W. Scott
• 通讯作者: McGraw，W. Scott

Molar form, enamel growth, and durophagy in Cercocebus and Lophocebus

• DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24592
• 发表时间: 2022-07-19
• 期刊: AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
• 作者: Guatelli-Steinberg, Debbie;Schwartz, Gary T.;O'Hara, Mackie C.;Gurian, Kaita;Rychel, Jess;McGraw, W. Scott
• 通讯作者: McGraw, W. Scott

Aspects of molar form and dietary proclivities of African colobines

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103384
• 发表时间: 2023-05-16
• 期刊: JOURNAL OF HUMAN EVOLUTION
• 影响因子: 3.2
• 作者: Guatelli-Steinberg，Debbie;Schwartz，Gary T.;McGraw，W. Scott
• 通讯作者: McGraw，W. Scott