Morphological and metric description of a rare Mesolithic deciduous tooth from Trail Creek Caves, Alaska Abbreviated title: Ancient deciduous tooth from Trail Creek, Alaska
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Abstract
This study describes a morphologic and metric examination of a rare human deciduous maxillary left central incisor from Trail Creek, Alaska, radiocarbon dated to 8085 ±40 BP, from ancient Beringia. The tooth is compared to the maxillary incisors from the deciduous dentition of USR1 from central Alaska. Genetic analysis of the Trail Creek child as well as the USR1 child showed that they both belonged to an ancient eastern Beringian population that remained isolated in present-day Alaska during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. The tooth was measured using a sliding calliper and the morphology of the tooth described directly from macroscopic evaluation as well as from a 3D surface scan. Based on tooth development the age of the Trail Creek child corresponds to an age of 1-1.5 years. The sex of the child cannot be positively assessed purely based on tooth morphology, but tooth size indicates a female which was confirmed from the genetic analysis. The tooth showed the basal morphology for deciduous maxillary central incisors known already from late Pleistocene and early Holocene without marked shovel shape.
References
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Hattab, F. N., Al-Momani. A. S., Yassin, O. M., Al-Omari, M. A. O., Hamasha, A. H. Rawashdeh, M. A. & Tavas, A. (1999). Crown Diameters of Deciduous Teeth in Jordanians. Dental Anthropology 13(2), 1-9.
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Moreno-Mayar, J. V., Vinner, L., de Barros Damgaard, P., de la Fuente, C., Chan, J., Spence, J. P., Allentoft, M. E., Vimala, T., Racimo, F., Pinotti, T., Rasmussen, S., Margaryan, S., Orbegozo, M. I., Mylopotamitaki, D., Wooler, M., Bataille, C., Becerra-Valdivia, L., Chivall, D., Comeskey, D., Devièse, T., Grayson, D. K., George, L., Harry, H., Alexandersen, V., Primeau, C., Erlandson, J., Rodrigues-Carvalho, C., Reis, S., Bastos, M. Q. R., Cybulski, J., Vullo, C., Morello, F., Vilar, M., Wells, S., Gregersen, K., Lykke Hansen, K., Lynnerup, N., Mirazón Lahr, M., Kjær, K., Strauss, A., Alfonso-Durruty, M., Salas, A., Schroeder, H., Higham, T., Malhi, R. S., Rasic, J. T., Souza, L., Santos, F. R., Malaspinas, A-S., Sikora, M., Nielsen, R., Song, Y. S., Meltzer, D. J., Willerslev, E. (2018). Early Human dispersals within the Americas. Science,10.1126/science.aav2621.
Nanci, A. (2013). Ten Cate’s Oral Histology. 8th edition. Elsevier. pp. 379.
Pasda, K. (2012). Seward Peninsula, Alaska: Trail Creek Caves 2 and 9 Revisited. The skeletal remains. BAR International Series 2374, 179.
Potter, B. A., Irish, J. D., Reuther, J. D. & McKinney, H. J. (2014). New insights into Eastern Beringian mortuary behaviour: A terminal Pleistocene double infant burial at Upward Sun River. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences pf the United States of America (PNAS), 111(48), 17060-17065.
Sciulli, P. W. (1990). Deciduous Dentition of a Late Archaic Population of Ohio. Human Biology 62, 221-245)
Sciulli P. W. (1998). Evolution of the Dentition in Prehistoric Ohio Valley Native Americans: II Morphology of the Deciduous Dentition. American Journal of physical Anthropology 106, 189-205.
Scott, G. R. & Irish, J. D. (2017). Human Tooth Crown and Root Morphology. The Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Scott G. R. & Turner II, C.G. (1997). The anthropology of modern human teeth. Dental morphology and its variation in recent human populations (pp.382). Cambridge Studies in Biological Anthropology. Cambridge University Press.
Scott G. R., Schmitz, K., Heim, K. H., Paul, K. S., Schomberg, R. & Pilloud, M. R. (2016). Sinodonty, Sundadonty, and the Beringian Standstill model: Issues of timing and migrations into the New World. Quarternary International, 1-14.
Tocheri, M. W. (2002). The Effects of Sexual Dimorphism, Asymmetry, and Inter-trait Association on the Distribution of Thirteen Deciduous Dental Nonmetric Traits in a Sample of Pima Amerindians. Dental Anthropology 15, 1-8.
Wilczynski, J., Szczepanek, A., Woytal, P., Diakowaki, M., Wojenka, M. and Sobrieraf, D. (2014). A Mid Upper Paleolithic Child Burial from Borsuka Cave (Southern Poland). International Journal of Ostoarchaeology 26(1), 151-162.
Alexandersen, V. (1976). En undersøgelse af gravpladsen på Bøgebakken i Vedbæk. In: Albrethsen, S. E., Alexandersen, V., Brinch Petersen, E. and Balslev Jørgensen, J. De levede og døde…for 7000 år siden (pp. 5-23). Nationalmuseets Arbejdsmark, Copenhagen (in Danish),
AlQahtani, S. J., Hector, M. P. & Liversidge, H. M. (2010). Brief Communication: The London Atlas of Human Tooth Development and Eruption. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 142, 481-490.
Alvrus, A. (2000). Sex dimophism in the deciduous dentition of modern Pima. Dental Anthropology 14, 9-14.
Axelsson, G. & Kirveskari, P. (1984). Crown size of deciduous teeth in Icelanders. Acta Odontologica Scandinavica 42, 339-343.
Bay, R. (1958). Das Gebiss des Neandertalers. In: Koenigswald., G.R.V. (Ed.) Hundert Jahre Neanderthaler. Neanderthaler Centenary (pp. 123-140). Böhlau Verlag, Köln Graz.
Berkovitz, B. K. B. & Moxham B. (1981) Tooth Morphology. In: Osborn, J. W. (Editor) Dental Anatomy and Embryology. A Companion to Dental Studies (pp. 118-150). Blackwell Scientific Publications. Oxford. London.
Brown, T., Margetts, B. & Townsend, G. C. (1980). Comparison of mesiodistal crown diameters of the deciduous and permanent teeth in Australian Aboriginals. Australian Dental Journal 25, 28-33.
Davies, T. G. H. & Pedersen, P. O. (1955). The Degree of Attrition of the Deciduous Teeth and First Permanent Molars of Primitive and Urbanized Greenland Natives. British Dental Journal 99, 35-43.
Frayer, D. W. (1978). Evolution of the Dentition in Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic Europe (pp. 201-408). University of Kansas, Anthropology 10.
Haddow, S. & Lowell, N. C. (2003). Metric Analysis of Permanent and Deciduous Teeth from Bronze Age Tell Leilan, Syria. Dental Anthropology 16, 73-80.
Hattab, F. N., Al-Momani. A. S., Yassin, O. M., Al-Omari, M. A. O., Hamasha, A. H. Rawashdeh, M. A. & Tavas, A. (1999). Crown Diameters of Deciduous Teeth in Jordanians. Dental Anthropology 13(2), 1-9.
Hanihara K. (1963). Crown characters of the deciduous dentition of the Japanese-American hybrids (pp. 104-124). In: Brothwell, D.R. (editor). Dental Anthropology. London: Pergamon Press.
Hanihara, K. (1966). Mongoloid Dental Complex in the Deciduous Dentition. Zinruigaku Zassi 74(749), 61-72.
Hanihara, K. (1967). Racial Characteristics in the Dentition. Journal of Dental Research 46(5), part 1, 923-926.
Hanihara, K., Masuda, T., Tanaka, T. & Tamada, M. (1975). Comparative Studies of Dentition. Anthropological and Genetic Studies on the Japanese. Part III. Anthropological and Genetic Studies of the Ainu. In: Watanaba, S., Kondo, S. & Matsunaga, E. (Editors). JIBP Synthesis, Vol 2. University of Tokyo Press.
Harris, E. F. & Lease, L. R. (2005). Mesiodistal Tooth Crown Dimensions of the Primary Dentition: A Worldwide Survey. American Journal of physical Anthropology 128, 593-607.
Tsai, H. H. (2001). Morphological characteristics of the deciduous teeth. The Journal of Clinical Pediatric Dentistry 25(2), 95-101.
Kaul, V. & Prakash, S. (1981). Morphological Features of Jat dentition. American Journal of physical Anthropology 54, 123-127.
Kitagawa Y., Manabe, Y., Oyamada J. & Rokutanda, A. 1995. Deciduous Dental Morphology of the Prehistoric Jomon People of Japan: Comparison of Nonmetric Characters. American Journal of physical Anthropology 97, 101-111
Larsen, H. (1968). Trail Creek: Final Report on the Excavation of Two Caves on Seward Peninsula, Alaska. Acta Arctica 15, 7-79.
Legoux, P. (1975). Presentation des dents des restes humaines de l’Abri Pataud. Movius, H. L. (Ed.) The Excavations of the Abri Pataud. Peabody Museum, Cambridge.
Liversidge, H. M. & Molleson, T. (2004). Variation in crown and root formation and eruption of human deciduous teeth. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 123, 172-180.
Lukacs, J. R. & Hemphill, B. E. (1991). The Dental Anthropology of Prehistoric Baluchistan: A Morphometric Approach to the Peopling of South Asia (pp. 77-121). In: Kelley, M. A. & Spencer Larsen, C. (Eds.). Advances in Dental Anthropology. New York: Wiley-Liss.
Lukacs, J. R. & Walimbe, S. R. (1984). Deciduous dental morphology and biological affinities of a Late Chalcholithic skeletal series from Western India. American Journal of physical Anthropology 65, 23-30.
Lukacs, J. R. & Kuswandari, S. (2013). Crown morphology of Malay deciduous teeth: trait frequencies and biological affinities (pp. 453-479). In: Scott, G. R. & Irish, J. D. (Eds.). Anthropological Perspectives on Tooth Morphology. Genetics, Evolution, Variation. Cambridge University Press.
Margherita C., Oxilia, G., Barbi, V., Panetta, D., Hublin, J-J., Lordkipandze, D., Meshveliani, T., Jakeli, N., Matskevish, Z., Bar-Yosef, O., Belfer-Cohen, A., Pinhasi, P. & Benazzi, S. (2017). Morphological description and morphometric analysis of the Upper Paleolithic human remains from Dzudznanaand and Satsurblia caves, western Georgia. 2017. Journal of human Evolution 113, 83-90.
Meredith H. V. & Knott, V. B. (1970). Coronal Breadth of Human Primary Anterior Teeth. American Journal of physical Anthropology 28, 49-64.
Mizoguchi, Y. (1998). Size Variation and Covariation Among Deciduous Teeth. Lukacs, J.J. (Ed.). Human Dental Development, Morphology, and Pathology. A Tribute to Albert A. Dahlberg. University of Oregon Anthropological Papers. Number 54.
Moreno-Mayar, J. V., Vinner, L., de Barros Damgaard, P., de la Fuente, C., Chan, J., Spence, J. P., Allentoft, M. E., Vimala, T., Racimo, F., Pinotti, T., Rasmussen, S., Margaryan, S., Orbegozo, M. I., Mylopotamitaki, D., Wooler, M., Bataille, C., Becerra-Valdivia, L., Chivall, D., Comeskey, D., Devièse, T., Grayson, D. K., George, L., Harry, H., Alexandersen, V., Primeau, C., Erlandson, J., Rodrigues-Carvalho, C., Reis, S., Bastos, M. Q. R., Cybulski, J., Vullo, C., Morello, F., Vilar, M., Wells, S., Gregersen, K., Lykke Hansen, K., Lynnerup, N., Mirazón Lahr, M., Kjær, K., Strauss, A., Alfonso-Durruty, M., Salas, A., Schroeder, H., Higham, T., Malhi, R. S., Rasic, J. T., Souza, L., Santos, F. R., Malaspinas, A-S., Sikora, M., Nielsen, R., Song, Y. S., Meltzer, D. J., Willerslev, E. (2018). Early Human dispersals within the Americas. Science,10.1126/science.aav2621.
Nanci, A. (2013). Ten Cate’s Oral Histology. 8th edition. Elsevier. pp. 379.
Pasda, K. (2012). Seward Peninsula, Alaska: Trail Creek Caves 2 and 9 Revisited. The skeletal remains. BAR International Series 2374, 179.
Potter, B. A., Irish, J. D., Reuther, J. D. & McKinney, H. J. (2014). New insights into Eastern Beringian mortuary behaviour: A terminal Pleistocene double infant burial at Upward Sun River. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences pf the United States of America (PNAS), 111(48), 17060-17065.
Sciulli, P. W. (1990). Deciduous Dentition of a Late Archaic Population of Ohio. Human Biology 62, 221-245)
Sciulli P. W. (1998). Evolution of the Dentition in Prehistoric Ohio Valley Native Americans: II Morphology of the Deciduous Dentition. American Journal of physical Anthropology 106, 189-205.
Scott, G. R. & Irish, J. D. (2017). Human Tooth Crown and Root Morphology. The Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Scott G. R. & Turner II, C.G. (1997). The anthropology of modern human teeth. Dental morphology and its variation in recent human populations (pp.382). Cambridge Studies in Biological Anthropology. Cambridge University Press.
Scott G. R., Schmitz, K., Heim, K. H., Paul, K. S., Schomberg, R. & Pilloud, M. R. (2016). Sinodonty, Sundadonty, and the Beringian Standstill model: Issues of timing and migrations into the New World. Quarternary International, 1-14.
Tocheri, M. W. (2002). The Effects of Sexual Dimorphism, Asymmetry, and Inter-trait Association on the Distribution of Thirteen Deciduous Dental Nonmetric Traits in a Sample of Pima Amerindians. Dental Anthropology 15, 1-8.
Wilczynski, J., Szczepanek, A., Woytal, P., Diakowaki, M., Wojenka, M. and Sobrieraf, D. (2014). A Mid Upper Paleolithic Child Burial from Borsuka Cave (Southern Poland). International Journal of Ostoarchaeology 26(1), 151-162.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.