Grit-Filled Foods Wore Down Early Humans' Teeth

LiveScience ^ | January 24, 2013 | Ker Than, ISNS Contributor

[SunkenCiv]

Ancient human ancestors ingested tiny rock particles found in soil and dust along with the plants they ate, wreaking havoc on the tough tissue layer protecting teeth, scientists said.

The finding, published online in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, could have implications for interpreting the diets of fossil mammals, including hominins, a group that includes modern and early humans.

The study also found that phytoliths, hard particles produced by plants in mimicry of natural grit, might not be as bad for teeth as previously thought...

Gary Schwartz, an enamel expert at Arizona State University's Institute of Human Origins, praised the study for actually testing a common scientific assumption among anthropologists: that food items cause small-scale damage on teeth, which over time scratches and pits the enamel, wearing it down to the point where the teeth are no longer protected and begin to erode...

To investigate the effect of quartz on enamel, Lucas and his team mounted single microscopic particles of the mineral onto titanium rods and rubbed them across an orangutan tooth, which had been polished to remove earlier traces of wear.

The scientists found that even a single pass was enough to chip enamel. What's more, the mechanical forces needed to cause damage were tens of thousands of times lower than those typically used for chewing.

[SunkenCiv]

A replica Paranthropus boisei skull and jaw. CREDIT: Durova

[ClearCase_guy]

Some “discovery”. They were making note of this years ago when they studied Egyptian mummies — their bread and whatnot contained sand and it affected their teeth.

[DBrow]

I read somewhere long ago that grit ground off of stone mortar-pestle grinders was part of the problem.

[FishinTX]

We had scallops tonight and a couple of them had grit in them. Ruins the whole scallop.

[SunkenCiv]

Pulled this from another vintage topic:

• Is "Flat-Faced Man" Your Ancestor? [2001]
• Study Says Americas Settled 15,000 Years Ago [2001]
• New Evidence for Multiregional Origins [2001]
• The First Americans May Have Come By Water [2001]
• The First Americans May Have Come By Water [2001]
• Calico: A 200,000-year Old Site In The Americas? [2001]
• Study: Neanderthals, Modern Humans Same Species [2001]
• New Out-Of-Africa Theory Unveiled [2002]
• Kenosha Dig Points to Europe as Origin of First Americans [2002]
• Our Species Mated With Other Human Species, Study Says [2002]
• Theory on origins of man gets genetic overhaul [2002]
• New evidence we all have the same ancestors Cal student’s discovery should resolve dispute [2002]
• Skulls Found in Africa and in Europe Challenge Theories of Human Origins [2002]
• First Americans [1999]
• Sabre-tooths and Hominids [2002]
• Evidence Aquits Clovis People Of Ancient Killings, Archaeologists Say [2003]
• Javanese Fossil Skull Provides New Insights into Ancient Humans [2002]
• Peopling of the Americas: Late Date for Siberian Site Challenges Bering Pathway [2003]
• Discovery casts doubt on Bering land bridge theory [2003]
• Why Humans and Their Fur Parted Ways [2003]
• Ancient rock "carved faces" found: Sign of lost race, or geological processes? [2003]
• Erectus Ahoy (Stone Age Voyages) [2003]
• Stranger In A New Land (Archaeology) [2003]
• Immigrants From The Other Side (Clovis Is Solutrean?) [2003]
• Debate Heats Up On Role Of Climate In Human Evolution [2003]
• Earliest Stone Tools And Bones Site Discovered [2003]
• Ancient Hearths Test Carbon Dating (Humans In Brazil 56K+ Years Ago) [2003]
• Iberia, Not Siberia Team Atlantis [2000]
• Arctic Dig Unearths Prehistoric Settlement [2004]
• A Surprising Survival Story in the Siberian Arctic [2004]
• Did hardy Ice Age hunters find the West? [2004]
• Neanderthal Extinction Pieced Together [2004]
• Island Hopping To A New World [2004]
• Invasion of the Kennewick Men [2004]
• Seafaring Clue To First Americans [2004]
• Israeli Site Yields 750,000 Year Old Fire Evidence [2004]
• The Oldest Americans May Prove Even Older [2004]
• New Twist On Out-Of-Africa Theory [2004]
• The Antiquity of Man in America [1927]
• ‘First Americans’ May Be Johnnies-Come-Lately (Topper Site) [2004]
• Stone Age Columbus - Questions And Answers [2004]
• The Solutrean Solution—Did Some Ancient Americans Come from Europe? [1999]
• First Americans - Homo Erectus in America [1999]
• First Mariners [1998]
• Retracing the footprints of time [1996]
• Giant asteroid rocked Antarctica [2004]
• Archeologist finds evidence of humans in North America 50,000 years ago [2004]
• (South Carolina) Fire Pit Dated To Over 50,000 Years Old (More) [2004]
• 400,000-Year-Old Stone Tools Discovered In Mazandaran (Iran) [2005]
• Faithful Ancestors [2005]
• Footsteps in time that add 30,000 years to history of America [2005]
• 40,000-year-old footprint of first Americans [2005]
• Georgians Claim to Unearth Ancient Skull [2005]
• African cousins behind extinction of Indians 70,000 years ago! [2005]
• Ancient Tools At High Desert Site Go Back 135,000 Years (California) [2005]
• Stone Age Columbus [2005]
• Not Out Of Africa But Regional Continuity [2005]
• Did Early Humans First Arise in Asia, Not Africa? [2005]
• A Talk With Colin Renfrew [The Third Culture, The Three Dimensions of Human History] [1997]
• Oldest Hominid Skull In Australia Found Near Bega (7 Million Years Old) [2006]
• Neanderthal Man Floated Into Europe, Say Spanish Researchers [2006]
• Origins Of The Ainu [2006]
• New analysis shows three human migrations out of Africa, Replacement theory 'demolished' [2006]
• First Americans May Have Been European [2006]
• Archaeologist says Va. bolsters claim on how people got to America [Solutrean] [2006]
• First Americans [1999]
• Experts doubt Clovis people were first in Americas [2007]
• Trying To Fathom Farming’s Origins [2007]
• Constructing The Solutrean Solution [2007]
• Does Skull Prove That The First Americans Came From Europe? [2002]
• Archaeologists Find Mysterious Neolithic Structure In Orkney Dig [2007]
• Bison Bones Bolster Idea Ice Age Seafarers First To Americas [2008]
• Al Goodyear And The Secrets Of Ancient Americans [2008]

[SunkenCiv]

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[higgmeister]

That is what I was going to say! This “discovery” has been common knowledge for many decades.

[higgmeister]

Teeth Tell Tales - Dental wear as evidence for cultural practices at Anse à laGourde and Tutu

This provides some background regarding dental anthropology beginning in the 1920's.

Traditionally, dental anthropology also categorizes dental wear according to the agent causing the wear. Attrition and abrasion are identified as the two main components in dental wear. The former is caused by tooth-on-tooth contact, whereas the latter is the result of contact with foreign materials (e.g. food, abrasives in food, other objects held in the mouth).

The number of studies and papers on the subject of the dentition of prehistoric and ‘primitive’ populations increased greatly in the 1920s. In this period and the years after there were great advances in the knowledge about dental structures, hominid dental evolution,dental morphology, dental pathology, and dental wear (both abrasion and attrition).A.A. Dahlberg is most often considered to be the ‘father of dental anthropology’ as it was his early work in the 1930’s and 1940’s which laid the very important foundations for further research in the field.

[Does so]

1) Ever drop a steak onto charcoal briquettes? ...and been hungry enough to rinse it off? ;)

2)Salt-substitutes have fine sand in their ingredients!

≡≡8-O

[China Clipper]

Ancient human ancestors ingested tiny rock particles found in soil and dust along with the plants they ate, wreaking havoc on the tough tissue layer protecting teeth, scientists said....

Hence the reason why primitive mothers told their primitive sons and daughters to "wash their hands before dinner, or you'll grind down all your teeth" Or at least wash the food first.

Either one....

[dfwgator]

Were these magic grits?