Researchers Link Tooth Chipping in Fossils With Diets of Early Humans
Wednesday, June 2, 2010 - 16:23
in Paleontology & Archaeology
(PhysOrg.com) -- George Washington University researchers have discovered a new method of linking tooth chips in fossils of early humans with their eating habits. Based on chip and tooth size, the research of anthropologists Paul Constantino and Peter Lucas suggests that early humans consumed large, hard foods such as seeds and nuts and occasionally used high bite forces to do so. Together with researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Drs. Constantino and Lucas examined modern human teeth to help link chip characteristics to the diet and eating behavior of early humans as well as great apes, monkeys and forest pigs.