Folivorous Apes

In The Dietary Adaptations of European Miocene Catarrhines journal report, written by researchers Peter S. Ungar and Richard F. Kay, the findings show that the European Miocene apes varied greatly in their dietary consumption in comparison to modern apes. This was done by Ungar and Fay analyzing the development of the molar shearing crest found in the jaws of Miocene hominid specimens found in Europe. One helpful piece of information that helped shaped this research is knowing how folivorous apes shape their jaws versus knowing how frugivorous ones do it. Herbivorous apes that specialize in eating only leaves demonstrate traits that are for the most part unique to them, which are longer shearing crests in comparison to apes that feed on fruits.
Orangutans, who eat more leaves than all the other specimens that Ungar and Kay analyzed, had a shearing quotient that was higher than them as well. This is definite proof that shows shearing crest development being shaped by dietary habits of living hominins. Ungar and Kay’s research also shows that hominins that eat hard surfaced objects for their diets have low shearing quotients as compared to relatives who ate fruit, with Ouranopithecus Macedoniensis having the lowest in contrast to the living fauna analyzed. The thick tooth enamel supports the idea that it ate harder surfaced food than the other Miocene specimens did at their time. Other specimen that were carefully investigated like the Dryopithecus fontani and Dryopithecus laietanus show traits similar to the fruit eating gibbons and chimpanzees via their shearing crests, implying the notion that they had a diet based on softer foods that did not require any adaptations to the harder things they were