The Anthropology of Modern Human Teeth: Dental Morphology and its Variation in Recent Human Populations

by G. Richard Scott , Christy G. Turner

• ISBN13: 9780521784535
• ISBN10: 0521784530
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-06-12
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Dental anthropologists focus on the variation around a commonly shared pattern, a variation expressed by differences in tooth size and morphology. This book centers on the morphological characteristics of tooth crowns and roots that are either present or absent in any given individual and that vary in frequency among populations. These nonmetric dental traits are controlled largely by genetic factors and provide a direct link between extinct and extant populations. The book illustrates more than thirty tooth crown and root traits and reviews their biological and genetic underpinnings. From a database of more than 30,000 individuals, the geographic variation of twenty-two crown and root traits is graphically portrayed. A global analysis of tooth morphology shows both points of agreement and disagreement with comparable analyses of genetic and craniometric data. These findings are relevant to the hotly contested issue of timing and geographic context of modern human origins.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Prologue	xiii
Dental anthropology and morphology	1	(14)
Introduction	1	(1)
Dental anatomy and dental morphology	2	(3)
A brief history of dental morphological studies	5	(5)
Dental morphology and physical anthropology	10	(2)
Goals and organization	12	(3)
Description and classification of permanent crown and root traits	15	(59)
Terminology	15	(4)
Components and features of tooth crowns and roots	19	(5)
Trait descriptions	24	(35)
Methods of observation	59	(10)
Observer error	69	(5)
Biological considerations: ontogeny, asymmetry, sex dimorphism, and intertrait association	74	(57)
Introduction	74	(1)
Dental ontogeny	75	(21)
Fluctuating asymmetry	96	(9)
Sex dimorphism	105	(4)
Intertrait association	109	(19)
Summary	128	(3)
Genetics of morphological trait expression	131	(34)
Introduction	131	(1)
The quest for simple modes of inheritance	132	(4)
Quasicontinuous variation	136	(6)
Complex segregation analysis	142	(2)
Family resemblance and heritability	144	(13)
Crown morphology and the diagnosis of twin zygosity	157	(2)
Environmental effects on crown morphology	159	(2)
Current views on the genetics of dental morphology	161	(2)
Ramifications of genetic studies to population studies	163	(2)
Geographic variation in tooth crown and root morphology	165	(78)
Introduction	165	(2)
Geographic subdivisions of humankind	167	(10)
Characterization of dental variation	177	(58)
Regional characterizations	235	(8)
Establishing method and theory for using tooth morphology in reconstructions of late Pleistocene and Holocene human population history	243	(26)
Introduction	243	(4)
Adaptation and dental morphology	247	(7)
Biological distance	254	(5)
Levels of differentiation	259	(10)
Tooth morphology and population history	269	(39)
Introduction	269	(1)
The Asian Dichotomy: Sinodonty and Sundadonty	270	(15)
Global analysis	285	(13)
Craniometric and genetic data in light of the dental evidence for human population relationships	298	(10)
Epilogue	308	(10)
Appendixes	318	(19)
A Information base for global descriptions and analysis	318	(7)
A1 Samples used in regional characterizations and map	318	(4)
A2 Regional crown and root trait frequencies (with sample sizes)	322	(2)
A3 Distance matrix among 21 regional groupings	324	(1)
B Sources of comparative data used for chapter 5	325	(12)
References	337	(34)
Index	371