[Teeth and diet of Australopithecines (hypothesis on the evolution of man)].
The dental pattern allows a taxonomic assignment of a primate and some deductions about his food preference and survival behaviour. The purpose is to define the Hominid's diet and behaviour, through a dental study. The Australopithecines teeth pattern was human like and quite different from Pongid pattern. Author indicates differential dental marks of A. robustus, A. gracilis and Homo Habilis, and infers, also by environmental knowledge, that they, very likely, were fruits, roots, graminivorous eaters, using their hands in preparing the food with rudimental skill. Their diet maybe was carnivorous too and their teeth were'nt quite specialized. Instead A. Robustus teeth were super-specialized for hard, coriaceus, vegetal food, and so their molars are enormous and powerful, while lacked in advanced hand skill. Homo Habilis shows dental small size like present human's teeth. Very likely, they were able to prepare food by tools, with better manual skill, and their diet had more variety (onnivorous). With hominization increasing, the teeth were decreasing in size and were loosing specialization, while hominids were gaining another functional skillness.
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004032:Diet; D000882:Haplorhini / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006801:Humans; D010161:Paleodontology; D014070:Tooth
Denti e dieta degli australopitechi (ipotesi sull'evoluzione dell'uomo).