Dental calculus evidence of Taï Forest Chimpanzee plant consumption and life history transitions.
Dental calculus (calcified dental plaque) is a source of multiple types of data on life history. Recent research has targeted the plant microremains preserved in this mineralised deposit as a source of dietary and health information for recent and past populations. However, it is unclear to what extent we can interpret behaviour from microremains. Few studies to date have directly compared the microremain record from dental calculus to dietary records, and none with long-term observation dietary records, thus limiting how we can interpret diet, food acquisition and behaviour. Here we present a high-resolution analysis of calculus microremains from wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) of Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire. We test microremain assemblages against more than two decades of field behavioural observations to establish the ability of calculus to capture the composition of diet. Our results show that some microremain classes accumulate as long-lived dietary markers. Phytolith abundance in calculus can reflect the proportions of plants in the diet, yet this pattern is not true for starches. We also report microremains can record information about other dietary behaviours, such as the age of weaning and learned food processing techniques like nut-cracking.
Max Planck Research Group on Plant Foods in Hominin Dietary Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary. Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Robert C
RC
Power
Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.|Departament de Prehistòria y Arqueologia, Universitat de València, València, Spain.|Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
Domingo C
DC
Salazar-García
Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.|Taï Chimpanzee Project, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire.
Roman M
RM
Wittig
Institute of Botany, University of Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Martin
M
Freiberg
Max Planck Research Group on Plant Foods in Hominin Dietary Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary. Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Amanda G
AG
Henry
D000821:Animal Feed; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D007560:Cote d'Ivoire; D003728:Dental Calculus; D005260:Female; D060434:Herbivory; D008297:Male; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D002679:Pan troglodytes