Teeth emergence in wild olive baboons in Kenya and formulation of a dental schedule for aging wild baboon populations.

Abstract

Teeth emergence schedules are presented from analysis of 95 wild olive baboons Papio anubis (age range 2-120 months) and compared to recently published results for wild and captive yellow baboons (P. cynocephalus; Phillips-Conroy and Jolly: American Journal of Primatology 15:17-29, 1988). Age at emergence of M1 (20.5 months males, 19.5 months females), I1 (32.5 and 33.5 months) and I2 (40.0 and 39 months) of olive baboons was earlier than in the wild yellow baboons and similar to captive yellow baboons. However, the later emerging teeth were delayed considerably relative to the captive animals and were similar in age of emergence to those of wild yellow baboons. Considerable variation in age of emergence occurred in the later emerging teeth especially among males. Regression analysis of dental scores with age demonstrated differences between olive baboons and captive yellow baboons but not between olive baboons and wild yellow baboons. Combined data on dental scores for wild yellow, olive, and hamadryas baboons provide schedules of AGE (months) = {SCORE - 11.79} ÷ 0.4405 and AGE (months) = {SCORE - 11.24} ÷ 0.4797 for males and females, respectively, which may be used for aging wild baboons. Full permanent dentition in wild baboons is predicted to occur over 1 year later than in captive animals.