| Line | 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 | |
| (5) | 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 | |
| (10) | 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 | |
| (15) | 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 | |
| (20) | 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 | |
| (25) | 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 | |
| (30) | 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. |
The passage suggests that which of the following would be true of studies of tooth micro-wear patterns conducted on modern baboons?
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