Comparative Dentition Patterns of Primate

Seeing as before hand, I did not know what "Dentition Patterns" meant, I felt the need to define the term for those who may need it.

den·ti·tion

[den-tish-uhn] Show IPA

noun

1.

the makeup of a set of teeth including their kind, number, and arrangement.

2.

the eruption or cutting of the teeth; teething; odontiasis.

 

Chimpanzees:

Chimp’s habitat span 21 African countries from the west coast of the continent east through the vast central-African nation of Congo (formerly Zaire) to the western reaches of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. The natural habitat of chimpanzees includes both tropical forests and Chimps on the western border of the species’ range can even be found living on the bordering savannas in Africa. However, savanna-dwelling chimps do not seem to stray far from the forest edges.  Chimpanzees live in social communities of several dozen animals, without monogamous mating bonds. Chimpanzees usually sleep in the trees employing nests of leaves. Chimps are generally fruit and plant eaters, but they also consume insects, eggs, and meat, including carrion. Chimps do most of their eating in the trees. The eating patterns of the chimps that live off of more herbs are the ones that don’t have to eat meats, they are the ones that live and maintain mostly in the trees. Though for the chimps with the sharper teeth, those are the ones that have to substitute some of the herbivore ways to eat meat because it may be more available, these are the chimps that live in the savannahs.

 

 

Gibbons:

These acrobatic primates live in southeast Asia. Gibbons are arboreal; they spend most of their lives in trees and use their arms to move from branch to branch. They feed chiefly on leaves, fruit, insects, and small birds. These animals are built much smaller and have much smaller teeth than their sister species, this is due to the fact that they spend most of their time in the trees only so the only meat that they have to endure is maybe so birds which accounts for the four longer sharper teeth (canine teeth)

  

 

Baboons:

All Baboons either live in Africa or Arabia, they  generally prefer savanna and other semi-arid habitats, though a few live in tropical forests and they spend much of their time on the ground. Baboons are opportunistic eaters and, fond of crops of farmers if there are some around .They eat fruits, grasses, seeds, bark, and roots.  They also can be known to eat meat like birds, rodents, and even the young of larger mammals, such as antelopes and sheep. The fact that Baboons spend most of their time on the ground obviously means that they encounter much more interactions from other animals, so for them to not be eaten, they must become the predators. This is why they have the most Carnivorous adapted teeth among all primates.

  

 

Spider Monkey:

Most Spider monkeys live in the tropical rain forests of Central and South America and occur as far north as Mexico. The most easiest habitat for them to live in is the trees of the rain forest.  These New World primates are social and gather in groups of up to two- or three-dozen animals. Spider monkeys find food in the treetops and feast on nuts, fruits, leaves, bird eggs, and spiders. Their dental patterns are much different sense they do not eat much meat, their canines are much smaller because they do not have to tear through anything but they are used to crack the nuts and eggshells of which they feed.

  

 

Lemurs:

Lemurs  are native to the island of Madagascar and the neighbouring Comoro Islands. Lemurs live in trees which is why they are also called arboreal. They spend most of their time at the top of the rainforest canopy. Most Lemurs live in the rainforests but some live in the desert areas that are very hot and dry. Lemurs both in the wild and in captivity eat fruits and vegetables. Some of their favorite fruits include apples, bananas, oranges, and melon such as cantaloupe. When it comes to vegetables the favorites will be carrots, yams, kale, chicory, red cabbage, sumac leaves, and chick peas. Lemurs are insectivorous and herbivorous creatures. Also, prosimian society is female-dominated. Lemurs dentition is a six-tooth version of the strepsirrhine toothcomb in a ring-tailed lemur, with canine-like premolars . The lemur dentition is heterodONT (having multiple tooth morphologies) and derives from an ancestral primate permanent dentition of 2.1.3.32.1.3.3. In the toothcomb of most lemurs, the bottom incisors and canine teeth are procumbent (face forward rather than up) and finely spaced, thus providing a tool for either grooming or feeding.
  

 

All the primates alike have incisors, canines, premolars and molars.