Heritability and genetic correlations in the dental dimensions of Saguinus fuscicollis and Macaca mulatta

Abstract

The genetic inheritance of dental traits in primates is of interest to biological anthropologists due to the high-quality preservation of dental remains in the primate fossil record and, as a result, the frequent use of dental morphology in the study of primate evolution. Adaptive hypotheses for morphological evolution in the primate dentition often discuss individual teeth as independent characters, yet the dentition may be best described as an organ composed of serially homologous parts. Previous studies have shown that dental dimensions are both highly heritable and frequently genetically correlated with other dental features in human and baboon populations, yet it remains to be seen whether tooth size heritabilities and patterns of genetic correlation differ in primate populations with different living conditions or evolutionary histories. This dissertation uses quantitative genetic parameters estimated in the dental dimensions of brown-mantled tamarins (Saguinus fuscicollis) and rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) to address these blank spaces in our understanding of the genetic inheritance and integration of primate tooth size. The findings of this research further our knowledge of the genetic inheritance of tooth size in primates and generate new hypotheses about the impact of genetic integration on the evolution of the canine-premolar honing complex and the dentition more broadly.