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- Micro-wear patterns found on the teeth of long-
extinct specimens of the primate species
australopithecine may provide evidence about their
diets. For example, on the basis of tooth micro-wear
- patterns, Walker dismisses Jolly’s hypothesis that
australopithecines ate hard seeds. He also disputes
Szalay’s suggestion that the heavy enamel of
australopithecine teeth is an adaptation to bone
crunching, since both seed cracking and bone
- crunching produce distinctive micro-wear
characteristics on teeth. His conclusion that
australopithecines were frugivores (fruit eaters) is
based upon his observation that the tooth micro-
wear characteristics of east African
- australopithecine specimens are indistinguishable
from those of chimpanzees and orangutans, which
are commonly assumed to be frugivorous primates.
However, research on the diets of
contemporary primates suggests that micro-wear
- studies may have limited utility in determining the
foods that are actually eaten. For example, insect
eating, which can cause distinct micro-wear
patterns, would not cause much tooth abrasion in
modern baboons, who eat only soft-bodied insects
- rather than hard-bodied insects. In addition, the
diets of current omnivorous primates vary
considerably depending on the environments that
different groups within a primate species inhabit; if
australopithecines were omnivores too, we might
- expect to find considerable population variation in
their tooth micro-wear patterns. Thus, Walker’s
description of possible australopithecine diets may
need to be expanded to include a much more
diverse diet.
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