Rhythmic incremental growth of daily or longer duration is faithfully recorded in the tooth enamel of all the mammals including those of primates. Just a single well preserved fossil primate tooth can yield a variety of invaluable information, ranging from gestation period, age at weaning, age at death, prenatal and postnatal diet, ecology, water intake, and even body and brain size of an individual, that lived millions of years ago. Till a few years back fossil teeth of rare primates were physically sectioned to count these rhythmic growth lines for extracting ontogenic information such as, crown formation times, daily secretion rates, rhetzius line periodicity and enamel extension rates. Now all this is changing with the application of non-invasive X-Ray Synchroton micro-tomography. Further, laser ablation based stable carbon and oxygen isotope analyses of these growth layers are showing immense potential for yielding high resolution dietary, ecological and climate data, with minimal visible damage to the very rare fossil specimens.

You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.