Titre |
Changes in orientation of attritional wear facets with implications for jaw motion in a mixed longitudinal sample of Propithecus edwardsi from Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar |
Descripteur géographique |
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Titre de la série |
American Journal of Physical Anthropology. |
Résumé |
In many mammalian species, the progressive wearing down of the teeth that occurs over an individual's lifetime has the potential to change dental function, jaw movements, or even feeding habits. The orientation of phase-I wear facets on molars reveals the direction of jaw movement during the power stroke of mastication. We investigated if and how molar wear facets change with increasing wear and/or age by examining a mixed longitudinal dataset of mandibular tooth molds from wild Propithecus edwardsi (N = 32 individuals, 86 samples). Measurements of the verticality of wear facets were obtained from three-dimensional digital models generated from ?CT scans. Results show that verticality decreases over the lifetime of P. edwardsi, a change that implies an increasingly lateral translation of the jaw as the teeth move into occlusion. © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc. |