First Molar Dental Chronology and Enamel Defects of Juvenile Baboons from Amboseli Basin, Kenya
Open Access DepositedTeeth provide an especially rich source of information regarding an individual’s dental development, life and stress history (Beynon et al., 1998; Dirks et al., 2002; Lemmers et al., 2021; Reid et al., 1998). Dental histology is a useful method for examining the periodic growth patterns of enamel, allowing researchers to reconstruct dental chronology along with stressful life history events through enamel disturbances (Guatelli-Steinberg, 2001; McFarlin et al., 2014; Schwartz et al., 2006; T. M. Smith & Boesch, 2015). There are two types of incremental enamel growth lines, which reflect the effects of circadian and longer-period physiologic rhythms on matrix secretion: cross striations and striae of Retzius, respectively (Aiello & Dean, 2002; Nanci, 2013a; Reid et al., 1998). Due to established knowledge on the duration of these depositional rhythms, we can use these increments to determine absolute chronology of tooth development, and recognize disruptions which may be caused by stress (Beynon et al., 1991; Dirks, 1998; Lemmers et al., 2021; Reid et al., 1998). There is evidence that physiological stress can be observed in the enamel of teeth as atypical increments or accentuated lines (Aiello & Dean, 2002; M. C. Dean, 2010; Guatelli-Steinberg, 2001; Humphrey, 2008; Schwartz et al., 2006). Comparing these accentuated lines against known life history, behavioral and environmental data allows researchers to study what stressors are manifested in dentition (Dirks, 1998; Guatelli-Steinberg, 2001; McFarlin et al., 2014; McGrath, 2018; T. M. Smith & Boesch, 2015). The main goal of this study is to reconstruct M1 chronology from four juvenile savannah baboons, Papio cynocephalus, and to compare the timing of accentuated increments in the enamel to possible environmental stressors, using monthly rainfall data throughout an individual’s life. All individuals from this study are from the Amboseli basin in southern Kenya. The Amboseli baboons represent an unparalleled study population given the availability of detailed records of daily rainfall data, maternal dominance rank at birth, and other possible causes of stress for individually-recognized baboons spanning over five decades (Alberts & Altmann, 2012). Skeletal records from natural deaths in the population are readily available. These dental remains will allow us to compare dental histological data to rainfall data in order to ascertain if stress caused by drought accurately presents in the dental record. This will be the first study to investigate dental development and dental stress in baboons from the Amboseli Basin.
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