Craniofacial correlates of dietary consistency in a nonhuman primate.

Forty-three squirrel monkeys were raised on either naturally tough or artificially softened foods. Significant differences were found in craniofacial and occlusal development between hard and soft diet animals: The latter exhibit maxillary arch narrowing, palatal arching, rotated and displaced teeth, crowded premolars, and retarded cranial bone mineralization. The correlates in results between soft diet squirrel monkeys and American children suggest that dietary consistency may be an important factor in human craniofacial growth.