Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
Am J Phys Anthropol. 2011 Dec;146(4):650-3. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.21628. Epub 2011 Oct 12.
Researchers have increasingly recognized the need to quantify the material properties of primate food items, particularly hardness (H) and stiffness (E), which is measured as elastic modulus. Assessing E in the field is particularly difficult because the typical equipment needed to perform the requisite analyses is expensive and cumbersome. Alternatively, researchers can use hand-held, relatively inexpensive, portable durometers that measure H on Shore scales. Shore-D durometers show a reliable ability to characterize H in harder-stiffer materials, and Shore-D measures in these materials can be reliably converted to E. Shore-A durometers-employed in past field studies of food properties-do not accurately characterize the properties of harder-stiffer materials, which are likely to be those materials exerting the greatest mechanical demands on primate masticatory morphology. We offer recommendations for Shore-D durometer usage in the field.
研究人员越来越认识到需要量化灵长类食物的物质属性，特别是硬度（H）和刚度（E），这可以通过弹性模量来衡量。在野外评估 E 特别困难，因为进行必要分析所需的典型设备既昂贵又笨重。或者，研究人员可以使用手持式、相对便宜、便携式的硬度计，这些硬度计在肖氏刻度上测量 H。肖氏 D 硬度计可靠地表明其能够在更硬更硬的材料中表征 H，并且这些材料中的肖氏 D 测量值可以可靠地转换为 E。在过去对食物特性的实地研究中使用的肖氏 A 硬度计并不能准确地描述更硬更硬的材料的特性，这些材料很可能是对灵长类动物咀嚼形态施加最大机械需求的材料。我们在现场提供了肖氏 D 硬度计使用的建议。
