Article1995

Enamel hypoplasia in the Middle Pleistocene hominids from Atapuerca (Spain)

José Marı́a Bermúdez de Castro · Pilar Julia Pérez

32 citations0/0 files storedAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology

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Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies dental development and anomalies

Abstract

The prevalence and chronology of enamel hypoplasias were studied in a hominid dental sample from the Sima de los Huesos (SH) Middle Pleistocene site at the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, northern Spain). A total of 89 permanent maxillary teeth, 143 permanent mandibular teeth, and one deciduous lower canine, belonging to a minimum of 29 individuals, were examined. Excluding the antimeres (16 maxillary and 37 mandibular cases) from the sample, the prevalence of hypoplasias in the permanent dentition is 12.8% (23/179), whereas the deciduous tooth also showed an enamel defect. No statistically significant differences were found between both arcades and between the anterior and postcanine teeth for the prevalence of hypoplasias. In both the maxilla and the mandible the highest frequency of enamel hypoplasias was recorded in the canines. Only one tooth (a permanent upper canine) showed two different enamel defects, and most of the hypoplasias were expressed as faint linear horizontal defects. Taking into account the limitations that the incompleteness of virtually all permanent dentitions imposes, we have estimated that the frequency by individual in the SH hominid sample was not greater than 40%. Most of the hypoplasias occurred between birth and 7 years (N = 18, X = 3.5, SD = 1.3). Both the prevalence and severity of the hypoplasias of the SH hominid sample are significantly less than those of a large Neandertal sample. Furthermore, prehistoric hunter-gatherers and historic agricultural and industrial populations exhibit a prevalence of hypoplasias generally higher than that of the SH hominids. Implications for the survival strategies and life quality of the SH hominids are also discussed.

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References

1973A new system of dental age assessment.1986Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture.1990Assessment of systemic physiological perturbations from dental enamel hypoplasias and associated histological structures 2017Demography of the Dobe !Kung 1980Enamel hypoplasias as indicators of stress in three prehistoric populations from Illinois.1985Re-evaluation of the age at death of immature fossil hominids 1990Primate life history and evolution 1993Three new human skulls from the Sima de los Huesos Middle Pleistocene site in Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain

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