Cold stress in captive great apes recorded in incremental lines of dental cementum

Incremental lines in dental cementum of museum specimens of 11
free-ranging great apes were compared to the respective structures
in 5 captive specimens of known age-at-death, and with many known
life-history parameters. While the dental cementum of the
free-ranging apes was regularly structured into alternating dark
and light bands, 4 out of 5 captive animals showed marked
irregularities in terms of hypomineralized bands which could all be
dated to the year 1963. Cementum preservation was insufficient in
the fifth specimen and did not permit such a differentiation. All 4
captive apes had been kept in a zoo located in the northern
hemisphere, where 1963 was characterized by an extremely cold
winter. Since cold stress is a calcium-consuming process, the lack
of available calcium in newly forming cementum could be responsible
for the observed hypomineralization. The appositional growth
characteristics of dental cementum serve as a record for such
life-history events. Copyright (C) 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel.