Articlegreen2009

The enamel–dentine junction in the postcanine dentition of Australopithecus africanus: intra‐individual metameric and antimeric variation

José Braga · Francis Thackeray · Gérard Subsol · Jean Luc Kahn · Delphine Maret · Jacques Treil

40 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Anatomy

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Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies Morphological variations and asymmetry

Abstract

We used micro-computed tomography and virtual tools to study metric and morphological features at the enamel-dentine junction and on the outer enamel surface in the postcanine dentition of an exceptionally well-preserved maxilla and mandible of an early hominin. The fossil, Sts 52 from Sterkfontein, South Africa, is attributed to Australopithecus africanus and is about 2.5 million years old. For comparative purposes in this exploratory study, we also used micro-computed tomography to analyse the dentition of a common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), a pygmy chimpanzee (Pan paniscus) and three extant humans. Metameric variation of the 3D enamel-dentine junction in the two chimpanzee mandibles was much smaller than in extant humans. Variation in metameric shape was high and complex. Notably, the mandibular metameric variation in extant humans can be greater within individuals, as compared with variation between individuals, with differences in shape appearing greater for M2 compared with M1. We recommend the use of a new approach in which individual metameric variation is systematically assessed before making inferences about differences between fossil hominin species. The fossil hominin examined in this study showed a metameric pattern of mandibular variation in shape that was comparable to the pattern seen in two chimpanzees. This degree of metameric variation appeared relatively small compared with the much larger patterns of variation observed within and between extant humans.

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References

1991Advances in dental anthropology 1996The Shape of Life 1925Australopithecus africanus The Man-Ape of South Africa 1996Dental Anthropology 2017Evolutionary History of the Robust Australopithecines 1997The Anthropology of Modern Human Teeth 1998The anthropology of modern human teeth: dental morphology and its variation in recent human populations 1956The dentition of the Australopithecinae

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2016Further morphological evidence on South African earliest Homo lower postcanine dentition: Enamel thickness and enamel dentine junction 2017Microevolution of outer and inner structures of upper molars in Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene humans 2016Internal Tooth Structure and Burial Practices: Insights into the Neolithic Necropolis of Gurgy (France, 5100-4000 cal. BC)

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