Kelley J
Division of Biology and Medicine, Brown University, Providence, R.I.
Folia Primatol (Basel). 1990;55(2):73-84. doi: 10.1159/000156502.
Examination of incisor microwear in three species of Colobus revealed that the predominantly folivorous C. badius more closely resembles C. satanas, a seed predator/folivore, than C. guereza, another predominantly folivorous species. This demonstrates that species of the same broad dietary category can have very different patterns of incisor microwear, indicative of differences in food procurement behavior and/or the physical properties of dietary items for some portion of the diet. Conversely, species of different categories can have microwear patterns that, superficially at least, are quite similar. The dissimilarity in incisor microwear between C. badius and C. guereza is mirrored to a certain extent in molar microwear, although the differences are not nearly so great on the molars. The differences between C. badius and C. guereza may involve different food items in the major, folivorous portions of their diets, or they may relate to differences in the very minor fruit and bark components. The similar microwear patterns of C. badius and C. satanas demonstrate that incisor microwear by itself is unreliable for assigning fossil species to broad dietary categories. Incisor microwear can be used to infer finer dietary distinctions in fossil species for which dietary category has been determined by other means.
对三种疣猴的门齿微磨损情况进行检查后发现，以叶为主要食物来源的巴氏疣猴，比起同样主要以叶为食的东非黑白疣猴，更类似于食籽动物/食叶动物白臀疣猴。这表明，同一大类饮食类型的物种可能具有非常不同的门齿微磨损模式，这表明在食物获取行为和/或部分饮食中食物项目的物理特性方面存在差异。相反，不同类别的物种可能具有至少在表面上相当相似的微磨损模式。巴氏疣猴和东非黑白疣猴之间门齿微磨损的差异在一定程度上也反映在臼齿微磨损上，尽管臼齿上的差异没有那么大。巴氏疣猴和东非黑白疣猴之间的差异可能涉及它们主要食叶部分饮食中的不同食物项目，或者可能与非常少量的水果和树皮成分的差异有关。巴氏疣猴和白臀疣猴相似的微磨损模式表明，仅凭门齿微磨损情况将化石物种归为宽泛的饮食类别是不可靠的。门齿微磨损可用于推断已通过其他方法确定饮食类别的化石物种在更细微饮食方面的差异。
