Trace Element Patterns in Juvenile Wild Chimpanzee Dentitions
ABSTRACT Trace elements are used to infer mammalian early‐life diets, environmental toxins, dispersal patterns, stress histories, and weaning ages. Here, we employ laser ablation‐inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry (LA‐ICP‐MS) to reveal elemental patterns in our closest living relatives, chimpanzees. Multielemental maps of the enamel and dentine of 12 teeth from five wild‐born chimpanzees vary considerably. It appears that spatiotemporal patterns of Ba/Ca and Sr/Ca are unlikely to yield reliable weaning ages in wild chimpanzees. Overall similarities implicate the consumption of plant foods rich in both Ba and Sr; these metals remain bioavailable for chimpanzees and other primates well beyond species‐typical weaning ages.
Authors
- Christine Austin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9966-0492)
- Jian‐xin Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2413-6178)
- Nicole D. Leonard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2578-7738)
- Maya Bharatiya (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0906-8197)
- Tanya M. Smith (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8175-8208)
- Manish Arora
Institutions
- Griffith University (AU)
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- Columbia University Irving Medical Center (US)
- Queensland Department of Environment and Science (AU)
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Archaeometry
- Published
- 2025-11-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.70061
- Primary Topic
- Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Griffith University
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development