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The degree of sexual dimorphism of permanent human canines in cervical buccolingual and mesiodistal diameters was investigated through discriminant analyses. Measurements were recorded in 254 canines from 85 individuals in four populations and sex was estimated with multifactorial morphological methods. Age was similar assessed in order to rule it out as a factor. Tooth and body size were controlled for in three of the populations (56 individuals) by the greatest buccolingual diameter of the right first molar of the corresponding jaw and the coronal diameter of the right femoral head, respectively. Age and tooth and body size were statistically insignificant factor2s (p > 0.05). Inter-observer error varied from 0.04 to 0.17 mm or 0.7-3.0% and was largely insignificant. Student’s t-tests found jaw was significant (p0.05) so measurements for both sides were averaged to increase the sample size. Sexual dimorphism was statistically insignificant for all four diameters individually or grouped with the exception of mandibular buccolingual width. Accuracy values ranged from 49-73% which, adjusted for a generous error margin from sexing techniques, became 39-58%. These results indicate that the landmarks, assemblages, or both do not exhibit significant sexual dimorphism. Future work should consider similar populations with different landmarks and/or the same landmarks on a different assemblage, preferably one of known sex.

Dental morphology is treated differently by different researchers. Some authors consider tooth size alone, whereas others take the shape of the tooth into account. We distinguish size from morphology because the methods of study, as well as the underlying principles for each one are distinct. Although morphology and shape have more in common than morphology and size, shape also shows noteworthy differences. Methods developed for ascertaining "tooth shape" for dental anthropological and forensic purposes have not been adopted widely, partly because they are difficult to replicate, which diminishes their utility in comparative studies. In this investigation, we focus on what forensic experts refer to as dental morphology; that is, distinct features or traits of the crowns and roots that are present or absent and, when present, exhibit variable degrees of expression. Common examples include shovel-shaped incisors, upper and lower molar cusp number, Carabelli's cusp and three-rooted lower first molars. This study comprises 1210 disarticulated teeth, 179 jaws and 65 skulls from a skeletal assemblage of commingled remains belonging to victims of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. These remains were excavated in 2004 at the Lisbon Academy of Sciences and were analysed according to dental morphology parameters utilised by the Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System to ascertain population affinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The degree of sexual dimorphism of permanent human canines in cervical buccolingual and mesiodistal diameters was investigated through discriminant analyses. Measurements were recorded in 254 canines from 85 individuals in four populations and sex was estimated with multifactorial morphological methods. Age was similar assessed in order to rule it out as a factor. Tooth and body size were controlled for in three of the populations (56 individuals) by the greatest buccolingual diameter of the right first molar of the corresponding jaw and the coronal diameter of the right femoral head, respectively. Age and tooth and body size were statistically insignificant factor2s (p > 0.05). Inter-observer error varied from 0.04 to 0.17 mm or 0.7-3.0% and was largely insignificant. Student's t-tests found jaw was significant (p<0.05) but side was not (p>0.05) so measurements for both sides were averaged to increase the sample size. Sexual dimorphism was statistically insignificant for all four diameters individually or grouped with the exception of mandibular buccolingual width. Accuracy values ranged from 49-73% which, adjusted for a generous error margin from sexing techniques, became 39-58%. These results indicate that the landmarks, assemblages, or both do not exhibit significant sexual dimorphism. Future work should consider similar populations with different landmarks and/or the same landmarks on a different assemblage, preferably one of known sex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teeth are a potential source of information on gender. The aim of this study was to analyze the dimensions of maxillary and mandibular teeth and find differences between males and females. This preliminary research was performed on a sample of plaster casts from the collection of the Department of Orthodontics, School of Dental Medicine University of Zagreb. The sample consisted of 50 casts (25 females and 25 males) 12 to 18 years of age. On each cast bucco-oral and mesio-distal diameter of teeth of upper and lower right jaw side were measured with digital sliding caliper. All teeth used in the analysis were intact, without tooth wear, caries or fillings. Statistically significant differences were found between males and females in the mesio-distal diameter of upper canine (males 7.85±0.56 mm, females 7.54±0.56, p<0.05), mesio-distal diameter of lower canine (males 6.99±0.59 mm, females 6.50±0.48, p<0.05), mesio-distal diameter of upper first molar (males 10.29±0.89 mm, females 9.81±0.81, p<0.05) and bucco-oral diameter of upper second premolar (males 9.62±0.64 mm, females 9.26±0.54, p<0.05). Although these are results of a pilot study, data presented could be an important contribution for gender estimation by teeth in a Croatian population when no other data about gender are available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bone deformities and dental stigmata are the main ways in which congenital syphilis can be diagnosed in archaeological human remains. As the teeth are usually better preserved than bones, dental alterations are valuable markers for the diagnosis of this disease. Some of the distinctive characteristics of congenital syphilis are specific hypoplastic defects that influence to morphogenesis and appear in the form of dental anomalies (Hutchinson's incisors, Fournier's canines, Moon's and Mulberry molars) and nonspecific enamel hypoplastic defects that can reflect general health and living conditions and in cases of congenital syphilis appear on the dental structures that calcify within the first year of life. In this paper we present the results of the analysis of dental remains belonging to a female aged 17 to 20 years recovered from the archaeological site Park Grič in Zagreb, dated to 16th century. The dental remains we consider come from a fragmented maxilla and a very well preserved mandible. These teeth display specific changes associated with congenital syphilis. All first molars show significant enamel defects such as multiple rounded rudimentary enamel cusps and hypertrophy of the enamel surrounding the cusp with agglomeration of masses of globules giving it the appearance of a mulberry. The upper right first molar is reduced in all crown dimensions with respect to the adjacent teeth and the lower right first molar is smaller in overall size than the second molar with reduced cusp size and irregular shape. The thin enamel is infolded and marked dentine exposure is evident on the cuspal tips. All upper and lower incisors present enamel defects in the form of notches on buccal surfaces and incisal edges. The tip of the canine cusp is partially hypoplastic in the form of shallow notch. The teeth described in this contribution show clear alterations typical of congenital syphilis. This individual is so far the oldest archaeological specimen affected by congenital syphilis documented in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research is currently being conducted on human dentition excavated from the necropolis at the site of the ancient city of Alalakh in Hatay Province, Turkey. As an administrative and economic hub in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages (c. 2000-1000 B.C.), Alalakh is thought to have been ethnically Hurrian, administered by the Mitannian kingdom to the east. Yet military conquest by the Hittites and Egyptians that often wrested control from Mitanni is well documented, as is the material record of long-distance trade among the peoples of Alalakh and other groups in the Mediterranean and Near East. How much this interaction and (often violent) subjugation impacted life (and death) in this ancient city and altered the genetic terrain is not fully understood. Ethnic and cultural variation during this vibrant period of commerce, migration, and military conquest in the northern Levant is problematically inferred from language and material culture but does not address who is using either. The physical expression of genetic and behavioral variation (derived from human dentition) can bring archaeologists in the northern Levant closer to understanding the diversity that likely existed at Alalakh during this period. The Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System (Scott et al. 1991), or ASUDAS, will be used with other approaches (wear, pathology, etc.) to assess the morphological and physical characteristics of this population's dentition and determine the scale of physical and genetic variation within this group. Information from the burials, such as position and location of remains, associated artifacts, and grave goods, will supplement the data collected from the dentition. The current ASUDAS data are presented, along with other observations, and compared to four predictive models that accommodate the possible impact that the history of Bronze Age migration may have had on the genetic and cultural fabric of ancient Alalakh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Miocene large-bodied hominoid fossils play an important role in the study of the origin and early evolution of humans. Lufengpithecus specimens from Yunnan Province, China are highly significant fossils. So far, Lufengpithecus fossils have been found in five areas in Yunnan. The genus Lufengpithecus contains three species: Lufengpithecus lufengensis, Lufengpithecus hudienensis, and Lufengpithecus keiyuanensis. Fauna analysis and paleomagnetic investigation show that they are range from 11 to 6 Ma. This paper focuses on Lufengpithecus teeth fossils and tries to understand the morphological difference and metric variation among them, which will hopefully provide some information for the taxonomy and phylogeny of Lufengpithecus. The three species are nearly similar in dental morphology. As previous studies have indicated, the more distinctive tooth in these three fossil apes is lower P3. The lower P3 of Lufengpithecus lufengensis is bicuspid, while the other two are all unicuspid. Comparing with Lufengpithecus hudienensis, the molar cusps of Lufengpithecus lufengensis are relatively steeper and the occlusal basinsare broader. Lufengpithecus keiyuanensis is closer in dental morphology to Lufengpithecus hudienensis than Lufengpithecus lufengensis. Here we also analyze tooth crown size (MD×LB) in the three species by line chart. From metric comparison, we have found that Lufengpithecus lufengensis is larger than Lufengpithecus keiyuanensis and Lufengpithecus hudienensisas a whole. The lower molars of Lufengpithecus keiyuanensis are close in size to those of Lufengpithecus lufengensis, but larger than those of Lufengpithecus hudienensis. The lower premolars (especially P3) are more robust in Lufengpithecus lufengensis than in the other two species, in which the lower molars are about equally robust. The size proportion of the anterior teeth and postcanine teeth are much larger in Lufengpithecus lufengensisis than in Lufengpithecus hudienensis. We consider that the dental variations seen among these species may be related to their respective geological ages, habitats, and perhaps diets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Permanent dental morphology is commonly used in small-scale biodistance analyses for identifying relatives within mortuary contexts. Deciduous data, however, are often systematically omitted from kinship analyses, leaving bioarchaeologists ill-equipped to detect genetic relationships among deceased subadults. This is surprising, as some scholars have suggested deciduous teeth should strongly reflect an individual's underlying genotype given their limited exposure to environmental influences during their relatively rapid (mainly in-utero) development (Saunders and Mayhall, 1982; Smith and Tillier, 1989; Smith et al., 1997). One reason for the omission of deciduous data from bioarchaeological kinship studies is the lack of pedigree-based research focusing on primary crown morphology. To address this issue and assess the performance of deciduous morphology in the detection of biological relatives, we scored crown features from dental casts of individuals of known genealogical affiliation. These casts are part of a long-term craniofacial growth study curated at the Burlington Growth Centre at the University of Toronto, Canada. Data collection adhered to standards outlined by several sources, including Dahlberg (1949), Hanihara (1963), Grine (1986), Turner et al. (1991), and Sciulli (1998). Euclidean distances were generated for 78 sibling pairs using 20 morphological traits with distance ordination via multidimensional scaling. Results indicate an average distance between related individuals of 0.264, which is significantly less than the average of 78 resampled pseudo-distances generated from 999 replicates of non-relative pairs (p=0.001). We explore our results in relation to potential environmental factors affecting the correspondence of deciduous crown morphology among siblings. Finally, we discuss the bioarchaeological implications of our findings, particularly the potential for incorporating deciduous phenotypic data into small-scale biodistance research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]