Final answer:
The skull and teeth of hominids evolved to accommodate dietary changes, with smaller teeth and jaws in humans due to softer, cooked foods and larger molars in robust australopithecines for chewing tough plant materials.
Step-by-step explanation:
Differences in the skull and teeth of apes and hominids reflect their varied diets over the course of evolution. Modern humans have much smaller jaws and teeth compared to other apes due to a diet that eventually included cooked food. This dietary change reduced the need for large teeth and jaws, as cooked food is softer. Conversely, robust australopithecines developed strong jaw muscles and large molars suggestive of a diet consisting of tough plant materials, indicated by a sagittal crest on their skulls for muscle attachment.
Other evolutionary differences include hominids developing smaller front teeth, enhanced bipedalism leading to architectural changes in the skull to accommodate a fully upright posture, and a gradual increase in brain size that inversely correlated with a decrease in prognathism, i.e., the jaw protrusion. These changes in skull morphology and dentition are correlated with changes in dietary practices, with an increase in meat consumption and use of fire suggesting a shift towards higher energy foods that could support larger brains.