Physical
Miracle Planet: Survival of The Fittest Anthropology
J
the evolution of Teeth and Diet
➢ Hominin diets unexpectedly became much more diverse than
other primates about 4 million years ago
➢ Apes that were l
...
Physical
Miracle Planet: Survival of The Fittest Anthropology
J
the evolution of Teeth and Diet
➢ Hominin diets unexpectedly became much more diverse than
other primates about 4 million years ago
➢ Apes that were living in trees continued to eat whatever the
jungle had provided, while human-like hominins widened their
taste to include a variety of food from the jungle and savannah
➢ About 1.5 million years ago, Homo erectus had canines bigger
than modern humans
➢ Over millions of years, the size of human jaws and teeth has
gradually shrunk
Thi➢ Seeds and other hard, fragile foods may be smashed between the
teeth's "rounded cusps and shallow basins."
➢ Teeth that have “thinner, blade-like crests” are required to cut through
foods like raw meat or leaves.
➢ Anthropologist Peter Unger believes that the slaughtered animal
remains discovered in various sites represent the beginning of meat
and bone marrow consumption in humans
➢ He explains how early Homo teeth were best suited for slicing than the
teeth that their ancestors had and the tools that the Homo's used also
indicated they had an adjustable diet
Homo sapiens cooking
meat
Evolution of Teeth and Diet
Thi➢ According to Peter Ungar, teeth and jaws evolved to deal with foods
that are harder to find because that's what animals turn to when their
regular diet is inaccessible
➢ Now several of modern humans contain enzymes that their ancestors
lacked and it allows them to easily eat foods that contain starch and
drink milk when they’re older
➢ Since our jaws aren't fully developed, a lot of people in today's world
have crooked, damaged or crowded teeth
➢ Bacteria that live off the sugars stuck on our teeth causes gum disease
and tooth decay as a result of people's sugar foods addiction
Gum disease from too
much sugars
Evolution of Teeth and Diet
Thi➢ Everything about the tooth reveals something about the person who had these teeth like for
instance where they resided, what they consume and what illnesses they developed.
➢ Paleoanthropologist Kristin Krueger made a device that imitates a human jaw to show how
various types of food affect our teeth and it's important because it allows us to have a deeper
understanding of hominin diets, specifically the ones who ate a lot of meat.
➢ Anthropologists may use the dental record to uncover essential health factors. For instance, some
researchers compared the tissue that develops under enamel in modern Greeks to ancient Middle
Easterns. They found that deficiency of Vitamin D was 4x higher in the Greeks than their
ancestors which could be possibly from being indoors a lot
Why Is It Important?
ThiPrediction Of How Teeth and Diet
May Evolve Further
I think our teeth will only evolve in the future depending on what we change our diet to.
We’ve already evolved into having smaller jaws so now all 32 of our teeth doesn’t fit in our
mouth and results in having them removed (wisdom teeth). There’s a possibility in the future
that our jaws can get even smaller if we started eating a lot of soft food because then we
wouldn’t require so much chewing and easily swallow it. This will cause our teeth to become
more crowded and having some teeth removed again.
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