Primate Dentition Comparison

Safika

   Safika are arboreal (tree-dwellers) indigenous to Madagascar and the Comoro Islands. They inhabit varied terrain including the desert, as well as dry, evergreen, and rainforests. Safika typically dwell in the upper canopy of the forests, away from most predators, though raptors and fossa (a weasel like rodent) have been identified as predators. Resources are plentiful, without fierce competition for food supply. Safika present a dental formula of 2.1.3.3, though the morphology is a bit unique. They have what is known as tooth-comb structure, wherein the incisors and canines protrude at an angle to form a comb-like grooming feature. Additionally, the first premolars are shaped like typical canines, having a conical high crown for tearing and puncturing, along with shearing crests on the molars to aid in tearing through plant matter and cracking seeds for nutrients. The safika's diet is made up of seeds, leaves, flowers, and fruit.


Spider Monkey
   Spider Monkeys are native to South and Central America, and have been found as far north as Mexico. They inhabit the warm and humid rainforests, are arboreal, and are not typically threatened by predators. Spider Monkeys exhibit the dental formula of 2.1.3.3 or 2.1.3.2, with high crowned incisors for picking fruit and tearing into the flesh and rounded molars used for grinding bark and other plant materials. The spider monkey diet consist of fleshy fruit, leaves, bark and wood, honey, the occasional insects/larvae and birds eggs.






Olive Baboon

  Olive baboons are semi-terrestrial, inhabitants of over 21 African countries. Olive Baboons forage on the ground during the day for whatever food source they can find, and then retreat to the trees or cliffs to avoid the many predators in their environment, which include chimpanzees, crocodiles, African wild dogs, lions, and leopards. The dental formula of Olive Baboons is 2.1.2.3, the same as all Old World Monkeys, Apes, and Humans. Olive baboons have seemingly unnecessarily sharp and pointed incisors and canines, but these help to kill and tear flesh from it's mammalian prey as well as act as a defense mechanism against it's own predators. They are omnivores, and never turn down a good meal, whether it is comprised of grass, seeds, leaves, fruit, tubers, small mammals or young birds.


Lars Gibbon
   The Lars Gibbon is an arboreal species native to Southeast Asian rain forests, with lush vegetation and ample supply of food sources. They dwell high in the trees, and are not subject to much natural predation. As a lesser ape, Lars Gibbons have a dental formula of 2.1.2.3, with bunodont, or round-cusped molars. The upper molars are abnormally large, and exhibit a cingulum, which helps with he grinding function. The canines are prominent and conical. The food sources available to Lars Gibbons is fruit, leaves, bark, flowers, plant shoots, eggs, small birds, tree frogs, and insects.


Chimpanzee
   Chimpanzees reside in Africa along rivers which provide dense vegetation and varied plant life. They require a steady supply of water, and a wide variety of fruits, seeds, and other plants. Chimpanzees exhibit a dental formula of 2.1.2.3, and have the most similar dental morphology to humans. As omnivores, they eat fruit, seeds, nuts, insects, and the meat of medium sized mammals including smaller monkeys and apes.
 

Ecological factors play an instrumental role in the evolution of primates, as we have noticed in the varied morphology of the dentitions exhibited by these 5 species.