Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas, Old Main 330 Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA.
J Hum Evol. 2012 Aug;63(2):429-37. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.04.006. Epub 2011 Jul 23.
Dental microwear analysis has proven to be a valuable tool for the reconstruction of aspects of diet in early hominins. That said, sample sizes for some groups are small, decreasing our confidence that results are representative of a given taxon and making it difficult to assess within-species variation. Here we present microwear texture data for several new specimens of Homo habilis and Paranthropus boisei from Olduvai Gorge, bringing sample sizes for these species in line with those published for most other early hominins. These data are added to those published to date, and microwear textures of the enlarged sample of H. habilis (n = 10) and P. boisei (n = 9) are compared with one another and with those of other early hominins. New results confirm that P. boisei does not have microwear patterns expected of a hard-object specialist. Further, the separate texture complexity analyses of early Homo species suggest that Homo erectus ate a broader range of foods, at least in terms of hardness, than did H. habilis, P. boisei, or the "gracile" australopiths studied. Finally, differences in scale of maximum complexity and perhaps textural fill volume between H. habilis and H. erectus are noted, suggesting further possible differences between these species in diet.
牙微磨损分析已被证明是重建早期人类饮食方面的一种有价值的工具。也就是说，一些群体的样本量很小，这降低了我们对结果代表给定分类群的信心，并使得难以评估种内变异。在这里，我们为来自奥杜威峡谷的几个新的能人（Homo habilis）和粗壮南猿（Paranthropus boisei）标本提供了微磨损纹理数据，使这些物种的样本量与大多数其他早期人类的样本量一致。这些数据是对迄今为止已发表数据的补充，并且对扩大的能人（n = 10）和粗壮南猿（n = 9）样本的微磨损纹理进行了相互比较，并与其他早期人类进行了比较。新的结果证实，粗壮南猿没有预期的硬物体专家的微磨损模式。此外，对早期人类物种的单独纹理复杂性分析表明，直立人至少在硬度方面吃的食物范围比能人、粗壮南猿或研究的“纤细”南方古猿更广。最后，注意到能人（Homo habilis）和直立人（Homo erectus）之间在最大复杂性和纹理填充体积的尺度上的差异，表明这两个物种在饮食方面可能存在进一步的差异。
