Peter W Lucas
Biographic Data
| ID | 80498 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Peter W Lucas |
| GIVEN NAMES | Peter W |
| FAMILY NAME | Lucas |
| SIGNATURE | LUCAS P W |
| AFFILIATIONS | George Washington University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5286-9101 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 462 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 38 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1985 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Bacon’s New Atlantis and the Fictional Origins of Organised Science
It is a commonplace that science fiction draws inspiration from science fact. It is a less familiar thought-though still widely acknowledged-that science has sometimes drawn its inspiration from science fiction. (Arthur C. Clarke’s idea of geostationary communications satellites is a well-known example.) However, the debt of science to science fiction extends beyond such specific examples of scientific and technological innovations. This essay ex…
Tooth wear: A response to “Scratching the surface: A critique of Lucas et al. (2013)'s conclusion that phytoliths do not abrade enamel” [J. Hum. Evol. 74 (2014) 130–133]
Age‐related variation in the mechanical properties of foods processed by S apajus libidinosus
OBJECTIVES: The diet of tufted capuchins (Sapajus) is characterized by annual or seasonal incorporation of mechanically protected foods. Reliance on these foods raises questions about the dietary strategies of young individuals that lack strength and experience to access these resources. Previous research has demonstrated differences between the feeding competencies of adult and juvenile tufted capuchins. Here we test the hypothesis that, compare…
Symposium on food properties and primates
Novel developments in field mechanics
Primate dietary ecology in the context of food mechanical properties
Membrane-plate transition in leaves as an influence on dietary selectivity and tooth form
Food material properties and early hominin processing techniques
Mechanisms and causes of wear in tooth enamel: Implications for hominin diets
The wear of teeth is a major factor limiting mammalian lifespans in the wild. One method of describing worn surfaces, dental microwear texture analysis, has proved powerful for reconstructing the diets of extinct vertebrates, but has yielded unexpected results in early hominins. In particular, although australopiths exhibit derived craniodental features interpreted as adaptations for eating hard foods, most do not exhibit microwear signals indica…
Viewpoints: Diet and dietary adaptations in early hominins: The hard food perspective
Recent biomechanical analyses examining the feeding adaptations of early hominins have yielded results consistent with the hypothesis that hard foods exerted a selection pressure that influenced the evolution of australopith morphology. However, this hypothesis appears inconsistent with recent reconstructions of early hominin diet based on dental microwear and stable isotopes. Thus, it is likely that either the diets of some australopiths include…
Measuring the Toughness of Primate Foods and its Ecological Value
Tooth Chipping as a Tool to Reconstruct Diets of Great Apes (Pongo, Gorilla, Pan)
The role of tooth enamel mechanical properties in primate dietary adaptation
Primate teeth adapt to the physical properties of foods in a variety of ways including changes in occlusal morphology, enamel thickness, and overall size. We conducted a comparative study of extant primates to examine whether their teeth also adapt to foods through variation in the mechanical properties of the enamel. Nanoindentation techniques were used to map profiles of elastic modulus and hardness across tooth sections from the enamel‐dentin …
Microwear, mechanics and the feeding adaptations of Australopithecus africanus
Adaptation to hard-object feeding in sea otters and hominins
Meals Versus Snacks and the Human Dentition and Diet During the Paleolithic
The feeding biomechanics and dietary ecology of Australopithecus africanus
The African Plio-Pleistocene hominins known as australopiths evolved a distinctive craniofacial morphology that traditionally has been viewed as a dietary adaptation for feeding on either small, hard objects or on large volumes of food. A historically influential interpretation of this morphology hypothesizes that loads applied to the premolars during feeding had a profound influence on the evolution of australopith craniofacial form. Here, we te…
Indentation as a technique to assess the mechanical properties of fallback foods
A number of living primates feed part‐year on seemingly hard food objects as a fallback. We ask here how hardness can be quantified and how this can help understand primate feeding ecology. We report a simple indentation methodology for quantifying hardness, elastic modulus, and toughness in the sense that materials scientists would define them. Suggested categories of fallback foods—nuts, seeds, and root vegetables—were tested, with accuracy che…
The influence of fallback foods on great ape tooth enamel
Lucas and colleagues recently proposed a model based on fracture and deformation concepts to describe how mammalian tooth enamel may be adapted to the mechanical demands of diet (Lucas et al.: Bioessays 30 2008 374‐385). Here we review the applicability of that model by examining existing data on the food mechanical properties and enamel morphology of great apes ( Pan , Pongo , and Gorilla ). Particular attention is paid to whether the consumptio…
Mechanical Properties of Plant Underground Storage Organs and Implications for Dietary Models of Early Hominins
Functional ecology and evolution of hominoid molar enamel thickness: Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii and Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii
The Evolution of the Hominin Diet from a Dental Functional Perspective
No other part of the modern human body suffers from disruptions as our mouths; they are so frequently diseased that an entire health profession, dentistry, specializes in them. Its various parts do not seem to fit together properly. The teeth, which develop in the jaws, often have insufficient space to erupt into its cavity. This causes rotation, twisting, tilting, impaction, and sometimes even a reversal of development, where even if some tooth …
Mechanical Defenses in Leaves Eaten by Costa Rican Howling Monkeys (Alouatta palliata)
Primate species often eat foods of different physical properties. This may have implications for tooth structure and wear in those species. The purpose of this study was to examine the mechanical defenses of leaves eaten by Alouatta palliata from different social groups at Hacienda La Pacifica in Costa Rica. Leaves were sampled from the home-ranges of groups living in different microhabitats. Specimens were collected during the wet and dry season…
Incisal orientation and biting efficiency
Broad-edged 'spatulate' upper and lower incisors are distinctive of catarrhines and platyrrhines who use them in various ways to peel fruits, remove bark, and strip leaves from branches. The incisors of modern humans not only control the bite size of foods during ingestion, but often grip items in a number of non-food related tasks. Such uses have long been implicated for Neandertals as well. Despite the evolutionary importance of incision and th…
Comparative use of color vision for frugivory by sympatric species of platyrrhines
Ateles spp. and Alouatta spp. are often sympatric, and although they are mainly frugivorous and folivorous, respectively, they consume some of the same fruit species. However, they differ in terms of color vision, which is thought to be important for fruit detection. Alouatta spp. have routine trichromatic color vision, while Ateles spp. presents the classic polymorphism of platyrrhines: heterozygous females have trichromatic color vision, and ma…
Functional ecology and evolution of hominoid molar enamel thickness: Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii and Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii
Viewpoints: Diet and dietary adaptations in early hominins: The hard food perspective
Recent biomechanical analyses examining the feeding adaptations of early hominins have yielded results consistent with the hypothesis that hard foods exerted a selection pressure that influenced the evolution of australopith morphology. However, this hypothesis appears inconsistent with recent reconstructions of early hominin diet based on dental microwear and stable isotopes. Thus, it is likely that either the diets of some australopiths include…
The influence of fallback foods on great ape tooth enamel
Lucas and colleagues recently proposed a model based on fracture and deformation concepts to describe how mammalian tooth enamel may be adapted to the mechanical demands of diet (Lucas et al.: Bioessays 30 2008 374‐385). Here we review the applicability of that model by examining existing data on the food mechanical properties and enamel morphology of great apes ( Pan , Pongo , and Gorilla ). Particular attention is paid to whether the consumptio…
Adaptation to hard-object feeding in sea otters and hominins
Food material properties and early hominin processing techniques
Seed‐breaking forces exerted by orang‐utans with their teeth in captivity and a new technique for estimating forces produced in the Wild
Orang‐utans ( Pongo pygmaeus ) at the Singapore Zoological Gardens were presented with two thick‐shelled edible seeds, Mezzettia parviflora (Annonaceae) and Macadamia ternifolia (Proteaceae) in order to estimate their maximum bite forces. The orang‐utans could break the Macadamia seeds in one bite, while those of Mezzettia required repeated attempts. Examination of shell fragments showed that many had scratches and some had clear, but small (ca. …
Mechanical Defenses in Leaves Eaten by Costa Rican Howling Monkeys (Alouatta palliata)
Primate species often eat foods of different physical properties. This may have implications for tooth structure and wear in those species. The purpose of this study was to examine the mechanical defenses of leaves eaten by Alouatta palliata from different social groups at Hacienda La Pacifica in Costa Rica. Leaves were sampled from the home-ranges of groups living in different microhabitats. Specimens were collected during the wet and dry season…
Sexual dimorphism of tooth size in anthropoids
Plio-pleistocene hominid diets: An Approach Combining Masticatory and Ecological Analysis
Measuring the Toughness of Primate Foods and its Ecological Value
Primate dietary ecology in the context of food mechanical properties
Tooth Chipping as a Tool to Reconstruct Diets of Great Apes (Pongo, Gorilla, Pan)
Indentation as a technique to assess the mechanical properties of fallback foods
A number of living primates feed part‐year on seemingly hard food objects as a fallback. We ask here how hardness can be quantified and how this can help understand primate feeding ecology. We report a simple indentation methodology for quantifying hardness, elastic modulus, and toughness in the sense that materials scientists would define them. Suggested categories of fallback foods—nuts, seeds, and root vegetables—were tested, with accuracy che…
The role of tooth enamel mechanical properties in primate dietary adaptation
Primate teeth adapt to the physical properties of foods in a variety of ways including changes in occlusal morphology, enamel thickness, and overall size. We conducted a comparative study of extant primates to examine whether their teeth also adapt to foods through variation in the mechanical properties of the enamel. Nanoindentation techniques were used to map profiles of elastic modulus and hardness across tooth sections from the enamel‐dentin …
Incisal orientation and biting efficiency
Broad-edged 'spatulate' upper and lower incisors are distinctive of catarrhines and platyrrhines who use them in various ways to peel fruits, remove bark, and strip leaves from branches. The incisors of modern humans not only control the bite size of foods during ingestion, but often grip items in a number of non-food related tasks. Such uses have long been implicated for Neandertals as well. Despite the evolutionary importance of incision and th…
Microwear, mechanics and the feeding adaptations of Australopithecus africanus
Age‐related variation in the mechanical properties of foods processed by S apajus libidinosus
OBJECTIVES: The diet of tufted capuchins (Sapajus) is characterized by annual or seasonal incorporation of mechanically protected foods. Reliance on these foods raises questions about the dietary strategies of young individuals that lack strength and experience to access these resources. Previous research has demonstrated differences between the feeding competencies of adult and juvenile tufted capuchins. Here we test the hypothesis that, compare…
Novel developments in field mechanics
Membrane-plate transition in leaves as an influence on dietary selectivity and tooth form
Plio-pleistocene hominid diets: An Approach Combining Masticatory and Ecological Analysis
Postcanine tooth size and diet in anthropoid primates
The molar tooth size gradient has been investigated in 69 species of anthropoid primates. The major variation was found to be in the relative contributions in the crown areas of the first and third molars (Ml and M3) and the ratio M1/M3 was employed to describe the shape and relative size of the molar row. The contribution of the most distal premolar (P4) to the postcanine area was great er when M3 was relatively smaller. The ratio M1/M3 was inve…
Sexual dimorphism of tooth size in anthropoids
Common Law Marriage
The expression “common law marriage” has layers of paradox. It now denotes, as Mr. J. C. Hall pointed out in a recent article in this Journal, a relationship whose characteristic is precisely that it is extra-marital. Previously, for many centuries, the validity of such a marriage was a matter not for the common but the canon law and so, before the Reformation, for the canon law of Rome, the ius commune , Maitland's “wonderful system” administere…
Seed‐breaking forces exerted by orang‐utans with their teeth in captivity and a new technique for estimating forces produced in the Wild
Orang‐utans ( Pongo pygmaeus ) at the Singapore Zoological Gardens were presented with two thick‐shelled edible seeds, Mezzettia parviflora (Annonaceae) and Macadamia ternifolia (Proteaceae) in order to estimate their maximum bite forces. The orang‐utans could break the Macadamia seeds in one bite, while those of Mezzettia required repeated attempts. Examination of shell fragments showed that many had scratches and some had clear, but small (ca. …
Toughness and fiber content of major leaf foods of Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata yakui) in Yakushima
During the spring, Japanese macaques in Yakushima feed predominantly on mature leaves of trees, vines, and ferns. They are selective in which parts of leaves they eat, and this study examines potential cues and consequences of typical patterns of selection. Toughness and fiber content (NDF) were assessed for 13 of the major leaf-food species from samples collected in the spring of 1994. The toughness of the petiole, the midrib, and two parts of t…
Seed dispersal by long-tailed macaques
We review here the methods by which long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis fascicularis) process seeds in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Singapore, and the factors that influence this. Feeding observations have revealed that these macaques either destroy seeds in their mouth with their teeth, spit them out whole from the mouth after removing much of the flesh, or else clean the flesh off them at the front of the mouth and then drop them. Absence …
Ecological importance of trichromatic vision to primates
The sensory ecology of primate food perception
Mind-Forged Manacles and Habits of the Soul: Foucault’s Debt to Heidegger
This article interprets the state of “subjection,” which Foucault took to be characteristic of the modern subject of power/knowledge, as an abiding psychic disposition analogous to Heidegger’s “inauthentic self-understanding.” The author begins by arguing, against prevailing orthodoxy, that in Discipline and Punish, Foucault is already centrally concerned with the power effects of forms of psychic self-relation. He then argues that the psychic st…
Dental Functional Morphology: How Teeth Work
Dental Functional Morphology offers an alternative to the received wisdom that teeth merely crush, cut, shear or grind food and shows how teeth adapt to diet. Providing an analysis of tooth action based on an understanding of how food particles break, it shows how tooth form from the earliest mammals to modern-day humans can be understood using very basic considerations about fracture. It outlines the theoretical basis step by step, explaining th…
Significance of color, calories, and climate to the visual ecology of catarrhines
Here we describe correlations among visual ecology and the physiochemical properties of fruits and leaves consumed by four species of catarrhine primate: Cercopithecus ascanius , Colobus guereza , Pan troglodytes , and Piliocolobus badius . Collectively, their diet was diverse, with each species relying on fruits and leaves to different extents. The mean chromaticity of both foods, as perceived by the green‐red and yellow‐blue signals that catarr…
Comparative use of color vision for frugivory by sympatric species of platyrrhines
Ateles spp. and Alouatta spp. are often sympatric, and although they are mainly frugivorous and folivorous, respectively, they consume some of the same fruit species. However, they differ in terms of color vision, which is thought to be important for fruit detection. Alouatta spp. have routine trichromatic color vision, while Ateles spp. presents the classic polymorphism of platyrrhines: heterozygous females have trichromatic color vision, and ma…
Sugar concentration of fruits and their detection via color in the Central American spider monkey ( Ateles geoffroyi )
Although most arguments explaining the predominance of polymorphic color vision in platyrrhine monkeys are linked to the advantage of trichromacy over dichromacy for foraging for ripe fruits, little information exists on the relationship between nutritional reward and performance in fruit detection with different types of color vision. The principal reward of most fruits is sugar, and thus it seems logical to investigate whether fruit coloration …
The Evolution of the Hominin Diet from a Dental Functional Perspective
No other part of the modern human body suffers from disruptions as our mouths; they are so frequently diseased that an entire health profession, dentistry, specializes in them. Its various parts do not seem to fit together properly. The teeth, which develop in the jaws, often have insufficient space to erupt into its cavity. This causes rotation, twisting, tilting, impaction, and sometimes even a reversal of development, where even if some tooth …
Mechanical Defenses in Leaves Eaten by Costa Rican Howling Monkeys (Alouatta palliata)
Primate species often eat foods of different physical properties. This may have implications for tooth structure and wear in those species. The purpose of this study was to examine the mechanical defenses of leaves eaten by Alouatta palliata from different social groups at Hacienda La Pacifica in Costa Rica. Leaves were sampled from the home-ranges of groups living in different microhabitats. Specimens were collected during the wet and dry season…
Incisal orientation and biting efficiency
Broad-edged 'spatulate' upper and lower incisors are distinctive of catarrhines and platyrrhines who use them in various ways to peel fruits, remove bark, and strip leaves from branches. The incisors of modern humans not only control the bite size of foods during ingestion, but often grip items in a number of non-food related tasks. Such uses have long been implicated for Neandertals as well. Despite the evolutionary importance of incision and th…
Mechanical Properties of Plant Underground Storage Organs and Implications for Dietary Models of Early Hominins
Functional ecology and evolution of hominoid molar enamel thickness: Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii and Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii
Meals Versus Snacks and the Human Dentition and Diet During the Paleolithic
The feeding biomechanics and dietary ecology of Australopithecus africanus
The African Plio-Pleistocene hominins known as australopiths evolved a distinctive craniofacial morphology that traditionally has been viewed as a dietary adaptation for feeding on either small, hard objects or on large volumes of food. A historically influential interpretation of this morphology hypothesizes that loads applied to the premolars during feeding had a profound influence on the evolution of australopith craniofacial form. Here, we te…
Indentation as a technique to assess the mechanical properties of fallback foods
A number of living primates feed part‐year on seemingly hard food objects as a fallback. We ask here how hardness can be quantified and how this can help understand primate feeding ecology. We report a simple indentation methodology for quantifying hardness, elastic modulus, and toughness in the sense that materials scientists would define them. Suggested categories of fallback foods—nuts, seeds, and root vegetables—were tested, with accuracy che…
The influence of fallback foods on great ape tooth enamel
Lucas and colleagues recently proposed a model based on fracture and deformation concepts to describe how mammalian tooth enamel may be adapted to the mechanical demands of diet (Lucas et al.: Bioessays 30 2008 374‐385). Here we review the applicability of that model by examining existing data on the food mechanical properties and enamel morphology of great apes ( Pan , Pongo , and Gorilla ). Particular attention is paid to whether the consumptio…
Adaptation to hard-object feeding in sea otters and hominins
Measuring the Toughness of Primate Foods and its Ecological Value
Biology (30 works) · Primate Behavior and Ecology (28 works) · Zoology (17 works) · Ecology (16 works) · Ecology (15 works) · Evolutionary biology (15 works) · Materials Science (13 works) · Composite material (12 works) · Medicine (12 works) · Dentistry (9 works)