Hominoid Dietary Evolution [and Discussion]

During the later Palaeocene and early Miocene, catarrhine primates and the evolving hominoids had adaptations for frugivorous diets, with the emphasis on soft foods. Early in the middle Miocene the hominoids underwent a major shift, both in morphology and in habitat, with the morphology characterize...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological sciences 1991-11, Vol.334 (1270), p.199-209
Main Authors: Andrews, Peter, Martin, Lawrence, Aiello, L., Scandrett, A. E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Apes
Australopithecines
Biological Evolution
Chimpanzees
Dental Enamel - anatomy & histology
Diet
Evolution
Evolution of Hominid Foraging and Diet
Food Preferences
Fossils
Hominidae - physiology
Humans
Paleontology
Primates
Primates - physiology
Teeth
Tooth enamel
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Summary:During the later Palaeocene and early Miocene, catarrhine primates and the evolving hominoids had adaptations for frugivorous diets, with the emphasis on soft foods. Early in the middle Miocene the hominoids underwent a major shift, both in morphology and in habitat, with the morphology characterized by thickened enamel on the molars, enlarged incisors and massive jaws. The diet indicated by this morphology is interpreted as still mainly frugivorous but with changed emphasis, possibly towards harder objects. The thick-enamelled hominoids are found associated with more open forest habitats, and the distribution of food resources in equivalent habitats today is discontinuous both in time and in space, leading to evolutionary pressures particularly affecting locomotion, brain size and social behaviour. The earliest known hominid fossils differed little in dental and mandibular morphology from the middle Miocene apes, and the implied dietary similarity, together with ape-like patterns of dental development and retained arboreal adaptations of the postcrania, suggests little change in the foraging strategies of the earliest hominids compared with their ape ancestors and further suggests similarity in evolutionary grade. This similarity may have extended to other aspects of behaviour, for example to patterns of tool making and use, which may have been similar in the common ancestor of apes and humans to the pattern shared by the earliest australopithecines and chimpanzees.
ISSN:0962-8436
1471-2970
DOI:10.1098/rstb.1991.0109