Dentition Patterns

Lemurs

Lemurs eating habits consists with foods like leaves, flowers, buds, bark, fruits. Lemurs have a very nutrition diet, 

but occasionally they eat insects and small animals such as mice. Lemurs’ dentition is heterodont, they have many 

teeth with morphologies, the dentition pattern is 2. 1. 3. 3. 2 incisors 1 canine, 3 premolars, 3 molars. Their teeth are 

mostly used for grooming and feeding. Lemurs are naturally found on the Comoro Islands and Madagascar islands, 

an island located about 250 miles off the coast of southern Africa in the Indian Ocean. Lemurs live in trees which is 

why they called arboreal. They are also highly adaptable to what the area have to offer them. Some live in the rain 

forests, while others live in very hot and dry areas. Lemurs have been in existence for more than 50 million years. 

They have adapted from solitary animals to live in groups of more than 30.  

                                                    

                           

Spider Monkeys    

Spider Monkey inhabit Central America, South America, and Mexico. All three regions have 
tropical environments. Spider monkeys differ from Prosimians, in regard to their jaw and teeth. They have two 
incisors, 1 canine, 3 premolars and 3 molars. They have no hypoconulids on the first 2 lower molars. A dental 
formula is used to describe the number of each type of tooth that specifies a certain species. The dental formula for a 
spider monkey is 2. 1. 3. 3. Spider monkeys stay near the tops of canopy trees. The trees serve as a defense from 
predators below. This explains why their diets consist mostly of fruits, bird eggs, insects and seeds.

Baboon

Baboon are usually found in the sun-Saharan Africa. Baboon prefer a semi - arid habitat. Africa's climate range 

from tropic to subarctic. Baboons are really flexible species that can live practically on trees or lands. They are 

a species that can almost survive an environment. They eat fruits, grasses, roots, bark, and seeds. Baboon diet is 

flexible like the species themselves, since they live on land and in trees they consumption depends on their location. 

Baboons have powerful jaws, as well as long teeth. This traits helps to defend against predators, as well as complete 

for food. A baboon dentition pattern is 2. 1. 2. 3. much different from that of spider monkeys. 

Gibbons

Gibbons are usually found in Southeast Asia, China and Islands. The climate is warm, humid, and could be 

generally characterized as monsoonal. The gibbon species is the smallest of the apes species. The trees of the region 

are topical, and are abundant in fruit. Gibbons enjoy eating figs, but they also eat bark and leaves because they 

spend most of their time in trees and feed on fruits trees. Gibbon's dental formula is 2. 1. 2. 3. same as baboons. 

They have shortened jaws with long canine teeth as shown in the picture. 

Chimpanzees 

Chimpanzees are usually found all across Central Africa. They inhabit both tropical forest and bordering savannas 

in Africa. They consume ripe fruit and young leaves. Chimpanzees have 32 teeth, 16 on upper jaw and 16 on bottom 

jaw. They use their molars to grind fruits and leaves. Chimpanzees usually hang around on the trees because they 

have everything they need on trees, and that is why they do not come on land. They live on their own or usually 

mother stay with their offspring. The dental formula is 2. 1. 2. 3. same as baboons and gibbons.