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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