According to the latest international research, prehistoric primates may love sweets

Source: China News Network

BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- A recent paleontological research paper published in Science Reports, an open-access academic journal owned by Springer Nature, said that oral fossils of the prehistoric primate species Microsyops latidens provide the earliest known evidence for mammalian caries, which can be traced back to the early Eocene (about 54 million years ago), suggesting that prehistoric primates may have loved sweets.

According to the paper, of the 1,030 oral fossils (teeth and jaws) found in the southern BigHorn Basin in Wyoming, USA, 77 (7.48%) fossils have caries, which may be caused by fruit-rich diets or other high-sugar foods. Historical changes in the incidence of caries suggest that primate diets have fluctuated between foods with higher and lower sugar content.

The authors, Keegan Selig and Mary Silcox of the University of Toronto's Scarborough Campus, inaccured the age of these fossils by comparing their positions in the sedimentary strata of the southern BigHorn Basin (researchers can date the fossils based on the geological age of the sediments in which they were found), and found that among their fossil samples, the earliest and most recent samples contained fewer caries than the rest. This may indicate that primate diets have fluctuated between foods with higher and lower sugar content. They argue that climate fluctuations in the early Eocene may have affected vegetation growth and food availability.

The authors also found that the incidence of caries in the Microsyops latidens fossil was higher than reported in extant primate studies, with only the curly-tailed monkeys (e.g., monk-hat monkeys) and tamarind monkeys (e.g., marmosets) having a higher incidence of caries than the fossil's prehistoric primates. (End)