Explanation of Dietary Factors on the Craniodental Morphology of Paranthropus

Explanation of Dietary Factors on the Craniodental Morphology of Paranthropus
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Explanation of Dietary Factors on the Craniodental Morphology of Paranthropus The most important aspect of the evolution biomechanics is that natural selection adapted the dental morphologies of diverse beings to facilitate dietary functionalities. Since natural selection leads to an improved functional design, it is possible to understand the extent of nutritional factors in craniodental morphology. Paranthropus is considered among the hard-food specialists, which includes eating nuts. Therefore, their craniodental features include massive post-canine teeth merged with very thick enamel. Moreover, they possessed robust craniofacial features that were perceived to have evolved in order to suit their diet. Notably, due to the habitual chewing of hard food, the craniodental morphology was mainly influenced by the diet of Paranthropus. The paper discusses how dietary factors can be used to explain the diverse craniodental morphology of Paranthropus. Dietary Influence on Craniodental Morphology of Paranthropus Dental morphology is vital because it determines the ability of teeth to prevent fracture. Therefore, the enamel should be strong enough to avoid fracture or chips. Since foods have diverse structural and mechanical properties, an organism needs to have proper dental morphology to prevent damage. Paranthropus are among the organisms specialized in eating hard foods. For many years, anthropologists have argued why Paranthropus boisei possessed strong jaws. The primary assumption is that hard foods, such as nuts, were their main food source. However, the appearance of their teeth seemed like they were created to consume soft foods. In some studies, there are suggestions that the main diet included grass and sedges. However, investigations have suggested that the hominin depended mostly on hard foods. This is because the craniodental morphology was designed to assist them in chewing and digesting the nuts. P. boisei was required to chew the nuts for a considerable time before. Due to the amount of time required to chew the meals, the jaws would be strained, which might explain the craniodental morphology of Paranthropus. While Paranthropus remains an enigmatic hominin in terms of its craniodental formula, there are clear suggestions that it was suited for masticating hard foods. Moreover, repetitive chewing could also have contributed to the large jaws and enamel. Another explanation of the cranial features is that the hominin was regularly chewing soft materials and was also feeding on rough grasses. While researchers propose these aspects, the morphology of the species does not affirm all of them. Towle et al. (2021) investigated the craniodental aspects of the species, particularly chipping of the enamel and its links to dietary aspects. As the study establishes, primates feeding on hard objects have a high probability of having tooth chipping. When a hominin is observed to have a chipping probability greater than 25%, they are perceived as hard-food eaters. In Paranthropus, the chipping was established to be below the threshold of 25%. This implies that most of the species in the Paranthropus ranges rarely masticated hard foods. In most analyses, the chipping and fractures were moderately higher on the premolars and canines. While this might indicate a high level of mastication and chewing activity, the observation on Paranthropus robustus incisors suggested minimal chipping on the incisors. This was an indication that there was no chewing on this particular species, which is highly unlikely. Another dietary aspect found in Paranthropus is the placement of hard food in the teeth, especially when breaking hard nuts during the first phase of mastication. While Paranthropus is perceived to have occasionally masticated hard foods, there is a lack of evidence to show that this happened regularly. Since the chipping rate is lower in numerous studies than other primates, the findings suggest that the hominin relied on both soft and harder foods. As noted, "Paranthropus preferred soft or tough foods, but relied on harder foods as fallback foods." In this regard, the major dietary factor that influenced the craniodental morphology of Paranthropus developed or evolved to allow the species to adapt to harder foods. The cranial structures were basically designed to cope with specific dietary items that were consumed rarely. Notably, although these foods were consumed rarely, there was a need to have proper adaptations in order to be able to benefit from the hard foods. This is one of the hypotheses that was proposed to explain the influence of dietary factors on the craniodental morphology of Paranthropus. There is also an argument that species that adapted to consume softer foods could also consume hard foods several times. This implies that, at certain seasons, it was expected that these animals could consume hard foods because of the absence of softer foods. Therefore, the demand for biomechanical abilities for mastication of these foods led to the adaptation in Paranthropus. It is also vital to note that the morphological aspects, such as the traits of the enamel, developed due to the functional needs of the animal. It has also been argued that the enamel developed in order to prevent fractures and chipping, leading to loss of teeth due to consumption of hard foods. In numerous investigations, it was noted that chipping was minimal in Paranthropus compared to other hominins. Another argument in the craniodental morphology is the facial form of P. boisei. It has been argued that the facial form was "adapted to withstand the feeding stresses associated with high bite forces." Since the diet included occasional consumption of hard objects, there was a strong dietary influence on the development of facial expressions. Moreover, it has been noted that Paranthropus boisei had structurally strong cranium to allow the species to bite strongly. The strain patterns in the P. boisei affirm this conclusion, which demonstrates the dietary influence on the craniodental morphology of the species. Another important craniodental morphology that indicates the influence of dietary factors is the form of the skulls. The skull is an important element in the dental morphology of any animal. Through analysis of the skull structure, t...