Functional dental correlates of food properties in five Malagasy lemur species

Biomechanical explanations are fundamental to studies of functional dental morphology. Until recently foods were not classified in mechanical categories amenable to a rigorous examination of the fundamental physical relationship between teeth and foods. Fruit, insect and leaf categories, although descriptive, are mechanically heterogeneous. The diets of five Malagasy lemur taxa were described in terms of two mechanical properties, hardness and shear strength, in an earlier study (Yamashita, 1996b). In the present study, correlations between these two physical food properties and second molar tooth features of two lemur families are examined. Several relationships are hypothesized: 1) crest length is expected to be positively correlated with food shear strength; 2) the radius of curvature (r) of cusps is expected to be positively correlated with food hardness; and 3) basin area should increase relative to cusp radius as food hardness increases, and cusp-to-basin ratios should decrease with increasing food hardness. Two additional hypotheses address the debate concerning the relative influences of the most frequently eaten foods versus the most stressful foods in determining tooth form. The results of the predicted relationships are equivocal. 1) Crest length is negatively instead of positively correlated with strong foods. Crest lengths are correlated with quantities of leaf consumption, which are related to leaf shape more than to material composition. 2) As expected, r is positively correlated with food hardness and negatively with shear strength, but this applies to upper molar cusps only. Lower molar cusps complicate simple generalizations of relationships. 3) Hard foods are correlated with a tight fit of occluding cusps and basins instead of the expected loose fit. The most stressful foods eaten (hardest and strongest) have higher correlations with tooth features than the most frequently eaten foods. Several functional complexes can be identified. Hard food items are correlated with short cusps in lemurids, tight occlusal fit, small trigon and large talonid areas, and deep, acute basins. Large, shallow trigons, shallow, unrestricted talonids, and large upper molar basins are indicative of a diet of strong foods. These results demonstrate that some variation in tooth features is explicable with reference to mechanical properties of diet, although the relationships are complex.