Fossil Primate Teeth as an Archive for High Resolution Ontogenic, Dietary and Palaeoclimate Record
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Department of Geology, Panjab University, Chandigarh - 160 014
Rajeev Patnaik
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12594-022-1954-9Keywords:
No KeywordsAbstract
Rhythmic incremental growth of daily or longer duration is faithfully recorded in the tooth enamel of all the mammals including those of primates. Just a single well preserved fossil primate tooth can yield a variety of invaluable information, ranging from gestation period, age at weaning, age at death, prenatal and postnatal diet, ecology, water intake, and even body and brain size of an individual, that lived millions of years ago. Till a few years back fossil teeth of rare primates were physically sectioned to count these rhythmic growth lines for extracting ontogenic information such as, crown formation times, daily secretion rates, rhetzius line periodicity and enamel extension rates. Now all this is changing with the application of non-invasive X-Ray Synchroton microtomography. Further, laser ablation based stable carbon and oxygen isotope analyses of these growth layers are showing immense potential for yielding high resolution dietary, ecological and climate data, with minimal visible damage to the very rare fossil specimens.
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