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 establishe...