Relationship between canine dimorphism and mandibular morphology in the hamadryas baboon and the Japanese monkey.

Abstract

To examine morphological interrelationships between canine size and mandibular corpus shape, inter-sex comparisons were made in the hamadryas baboon and the Japanese monkey, known to display extreme and moderate canine dimorphism, respectively. Results of adult comparisons showed that all mandibular dimensions were significantly larger in the males than in the females in both species. In the hamadryas baboon, the males also exhibited a higher ratio of anterior to posterior corpus height than the females. This sex difference in corpus shape was not significant in the Japanese monkey, indicating lack of involvement of canine dimorphism. Analysis of mandibular growth patterns in the hamadryas baboon demonstrated that significant sexual size difference did not occur before incisor eruption, and that the anteriorly high corpus of the adult male mandible was associated with a rapidly increasing symphyseal height after incisor eruption. It was also shown that the female canine started to erupt shortly after incisor eruption, while the forming male canine continued to stay near the mandibular base and developed further in size until eruption. The relative positions of the incisors kept shifting upwards even after eruption in the males, while they hardly changed in the females. It is therefore suggested that the prolonged development and size increase of the male canine is accompanied by further enlargement of the symphysis, resulting in the higher anterior corpus of the adult males compared to the adult females. The results thus indicate the importance of understanding the spatial relationships of the developing teeth in interpreting mandibular morphology.