Measuring the Toughness of Primate Foods and its Ecological Value

The mechanical properties of plant foods play an important role in the feeding process, being one of many criteria for food acceptance or rejection by primates. One of the simplest justifications for this statement is the general finding that primates tend to avoid foods with high fiber. Although fiber is largely tasteless, odorless, and colorless, it imparts texture, a sensation in the mouth related to the physical properties of foods. All primates encounter such mechanical resistance when they bite into plant food, and studies on humans show that an incisal bite facilitates quick oral assessment of a property called toughness. Thus, it is feasible that primates make similar assessments of quality in this manner. Here, we review methods of measuring the toughness of primate foods, which can be used either for making general surveys of the properties of foods available to primates or for establishing the mechanisms that protect these foods from the evolved form of the dentition.Kuwait Univ, Dept Bioclin Sci, Fac Dent, Safat 13110, KuwaitArizona State Univ, Sch Human Evolut & Social Change, Tempe, AZ 85287 USAColl Sci, Dept Biol Sci, Huntington, WV 25755 USARutgers State Univ, Dept Anthropol, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 USAGeorge Washington Univ, Ctr Adv Study Hominid Paleobiol, Dept Anthropol, Washington, DC 20052 USAUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Ciencias Biol, BR-09972270 Diadema, SP, BrazilPromuriqui Assoc, BR-18230000 Sao Miguel Arcanjo, SP, BrazilGeorge Washington Univ, Sch Engn & Appl Sci, Washington, DC 20052 USAUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Ciencias Biol, BR-09972270 Diadema, SP, BrazilWeb of Scienc