tooth size and morphology in a recent australian aboriginal population from broadbeach, south east...
TRANSCRIPT
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 55:423 -432 (1981)
Tooth Size and Morphology in a Recent Australian Aboriginal Population From Broadbeach, South East Queensland
PATRICIA SMITH, T . BROWN AND W.B. WOOD Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Faculties of Medicine and Dental Medicine, Hebrew University - Hadassah, Jerusalem, Israel (P.S.1, Depart- ment of Restorative Dentistry, University of Adelaide, S. Australia (T.B.), and Department of Anatomy. University of Queensland St. Lucia, Queensland Australia (W.B. W.)
KEY WORDS Dentition, Tooth size, Morphology, Aborigine
ABSTRACT Odontometric and morphologic observations were made of the dentition of skeletal remains of Australian aborigines from Boradbeach, S.E. Queensland. Tooth size, especially of the molars, was found to be significantly larger than that reported for other recent Aboriginal populations. Tooth mor- phology also differed, with a higher frequency of five cusped second molars, and a lower frequency of shoveling and Carabelli's cusp than previously reported as typical of Australian aborigines.
Human occupation in Australia is now known to date back at least 40,000 years (Jones, 1977), with the earliest well-dated skeletal remains yet found some 30,000 years old (Thorne, 1976). Human skeletal samples from this and most subsequent periods are small and mainly limited to the South East (Fig. l), but sufficient have been described to suggest the presence of at least two physical types: one more gracile and one more robust (Mulvaney, 1975: Thorne, 1977; Freedman and Lofgren, 1979).
One of the most robust of recent aboriginal populations known is that from Broadbeach in South East Queensland. The site was ex- cavated by Haglund (1976) between 1965 and 1968 and has yielded the skeletal remains of a t least 150 individuals from burials dating over the past 1,000 years.
Wood (1968) has described the general con- dition of the skeletal remains. He found a high proportion of juveniles, many more iden- tifiable males than females, and few old in- dividuals. Freedman and Wood (1977) studied the crania and mandibles and found them to differ from those of other recent aboriginal skeletal remains from Queensland and New South Wales.
We have examined the Broadbeach teeth and jaws, and the findings for tooth size and
morphology are presented here as a contribu- tion to the steadily growing body of data on the dentition of the aboriginal populations of Australia.
MATERIALS A N D METHODS
After sorting through all the skeletal re- mains from Broadbeach, the teeth and jaws of 96 specimens were identified and examined in detail. Adult specimens were aged and sexed using the criteria described by Freedman and Wood (1977). Fragmentary specimens and juveniles that could not be confidently sexed using these criteria were coded as sex unknown. Infants and juveniles were aged by comparing dental eruption stages with those of living aboriginals of known age, described by Brown et al. (1979). For each individual, dental status was recorded and teeth present were scored as sound, carious, fractured, or worn.
Following this initial inspection, all sound teeth with little or no attrition were measured and examined for presence of dental traits. The maximum mesiodistal and buccolingual diameters of each tooth were measured using specially sharpened vernier calipers with a
Received May 1. 1980; accepted January 16, 1981
0002-948318115504-0423$03.00 0 1981 ALAN R. LISS, INC.
424
W Recent sites
0 Fossil sites
P. SMITH, T. BROWN, AND W.B. WOOD
Fig. 1. Map of Australia showing the locat,ion of sites referred to in the text.
helios dial accurate to 0.05 mm. The beaks of the calipers were held parallel to the long axis of the tooth being measured and all measurements were rounded off to the nearest 0.1 mm: Accuracy of measurement, determin- ed by repeating measurements at random dur- ing the course of the month long study, was of the order of f 0.15 mm.
Morphological traits were recorded only on unworn and slightly worn teeth, since hypoconulids and sixth and seventh cusps in the lower molars, together with additional marginal cusps on the upper molars, may be only faintly delineated by shallow grooves that are early obliterated by attrition, while the ma- jor grooves delineating the four larger cusps are still intact. Similarly, attrition ad palatum in the upper molars can obliterate grooves delineating occlusally placed Carabelli cusps when occlusal attrition is still slight to moderate.
For the incisors and canines, the presence of shoveling and lingual tubercles was recorded. For the upper molars, cusp number and development of metaconp and hypocone were scored, and the presence and location of marginal ridge cusps were recorded. For the lower molars, cusp number and pattern was
recorded after Dahlberg (1951). All data were coded and transferred to punch cards for com- puter analysis, using SPSS programmes (Nie et al., 1975) to obtain descriptive statistics.
RESULTS
Although 96 specimens were examined for the dental study, only 36.4% were identified as male and 6.3% as female; all the rest were too young or too incomplete to be sexed with a high degree of confidence using skeletal criteria. There were few missing teeth other than upper incisors which had been avulsed in adolescence. A detailed description of dental pathology will be published elsewhere.
Teeth could not be measured in many of the older specimens because of attrition. This ap- plied especially to the first molars, which were usually severely worn even in individuals in their early twenties. Figure 2 shows the lower molars of a young individual with incomplete union of long bone ephiphyses, and an in- completely erupted third molar, but severely worn first molar.
The sample sizes from which mean values of tooth diameters were calculated varied accord- ingly and were especially small for upper cen- tral incisors and first molars. The mean values
DENTITION OF BHOADBEACH AHOHIGINES 425
Fig. 2. Lower right molars and premolars in young individual from Hroadheach. Note the large size of the second molar, and marked attrition ot the first molar. relative l o the other teeth.
obtained are shown in Table 1. All tooth diameters are large, with those of males larger than those of females, although female sample sizes are too small for valid statistical com- parisons to be made between the sexes. The mean values of tooth diameters in the mixed sample, which includes all teeth measured, is smaller than that of the all male group, although it includes many completely unworn teeth from children and juveniles, presumably because of the inclusion of smaller, female teeth in this category.
MORPHOLOGY
The upper incisors are large, broad, and smooth with little shoveling and only small lingual tubercles. Trace shoveling was found on 46% of central incisors, and lingual tubercles on 28% (Table 2). Table 3 lists the fre- quencies of molar cusp pattern. All four major cusps are present on the upper first molars and on 9670 of second molars and 82% of third molars, with additional cuspules present on the marginal ridges of most molars. Thirty- three percent of first molars show some manifestation of Carabelli’s trait (pits, fur- rows, bulges), but only 3% have a well-defined cusp. Five well-developed cusps are present on 95% of lower first molars, on 92% of second molars and 85% of third molars, with cusp pat- tern predominantly Y5 on first molars and + 5 on second and third molars. Sixth cusps are
present on 65% of first molars, 42Y0 of second molars, and 27Yc of third molars, but seventh cusps and protostylids are rare.
DISCUSSION
In small-toothed contemporary populations there are considerable differences in tooth size and morphology between teeth of the same class. Dahlberg (1951) explained these dif- ferences as resulting from the suppression of primary characters in the more variable tooth of each class, which is usually the more distal tooth and later in developing. As tooth size reduces, the distal teeth reduce in size at a faster rate than the more stable key teeth; thus the M2 > M1 sequence common in large- toothed fossil hominids has changed to an M1 > M2 sequence in small toothed populations, and these changes in tooth size are associated with reduction in molar cusp number (Dahlberg, 1961, 1965; Keene, 1968). In the Broadbeach dentition, as in other large- toothed populations, there is little difference in tooth size between the two molars, and little reduction in cusp number in the second molars.
Tables 4 and 5 give the mean values of tooth diameters in aboriginal groups from other regions in Australia measured using the same criteria as those applied to measurements on the Broadbeach sample. All measurements were taken by the same investigator except those for Yuendumu, and double determina-
TA
BL
E 1
. Bro
adbe
ach:
Mes
iodi
stal
and
buc
colin
gual
dia
met
ers
of p
erm
anen
t te
eth’
Max
illa
Mal
e Fe
mal
e M
ixed
No.
X
SD
N
o.
X
SD
N
o.
X
SD
-
- -
I1
MD
7
9.8
0.8
1
9.5
-
15
9
.9
0.7
BL
8
7.9
0.6
2 7.
4 0
.3
16
8.
0 0.
5 I2
M
D
12
7.
8 0
.6
4 7.
2 0.
6 27
7
.7
0.6
BL
1
4
7.0
0.6
3 6.
3 0.
7 25
7.
0 0.
6 C
MD
1
4
8.6
0.6
3 8
.3
0.7
29
8.5
0.
6 P1
M
D
20
7.9
0.5
3 7
.6
0.5
31
7.
9 0.
5 B
L 1
8
10.5
0.
6 3
9.7
0.4
31
10
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..
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9
7.5
0.5
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0.4
30
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L
20
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6 3
10
.2
0.2
31
10.5
0.
6 M
1 M
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9 11
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0.6
2 10
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2.0
34
11.7
0.
8
M2
MD
20
11
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0.9
4 10
.9
0.6
34
11.4
0.
9 B
L
9 12
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0.5
1
12.9
-
33
12.8
0.
7
BL
1
9
13.5
0.
7 4
13.0
0.
6 33
13
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MD
23
10
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3
9.7
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29
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23
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11.6
0.
7 29
12
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1.0
Man
dibl
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e Fe
mal
e M
ixed
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- -
- E
No.
X
S
D
No.
X
SD
N
o.
X
SD
7
8 5.
9 0
.3
1
10
6.
5 0.
4 1
1
5
7.0
0.6
1
14
6.8
0.5
1
17
7.7
0.4
3 16
8
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0.5
4 19
9
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0.4
4
6.0
-
22
6.0
0.
5 6
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-
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6.4
0.4
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-
29
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9 31
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27
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19
9.
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7 3
8.9
0
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24
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7
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ivid
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ed o
n av
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ht a
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ft s
ides
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re p
rese
nt
DENTITION OF BKOADBEACH AHOItIGINES 427
TABLE 2. Morphology of upper anterior teeth at Broadbeach ~~
C I* I' No. % No. % No. %
Shoveling Absent 25 96 17 77 7 54
6 46 Trace 1 4 5 23 14 100 Total 26 100 22 100
AEent 9 36 12 55 5 36 Bulge 8 32 6 27 5 36 Tubercle 8 32 4 18 4 28 Total 25 100 22 100 14 100
Lin al Tubercle
tions taken by this investigator and Dr. Town- send, who measured the Yuendumu sample, showed a high measure of concordance.
The measurements for Yuendumu and Kalumburu were taken from casts of the teeth of living Aborigines, those for Swanport from the skulls and mandibles of individuals who probably died in the early part of the last cen- tury (Stirling, 191 1). and those of Roonka from skeletal remains assigned to three distinct strata dating back 7,000 years (Pretty, 1977). Since no differences were found in tooth size between specimens from different strata a t Roonka (Smith and Prokopec, in preparation), all specimens from Roonka were pooled for this study. Only at Roonka is tooth size com- parable to that found in the Broadbeach series. Teeth at all the other sites are smaller, with teeth smallest in the series from Yuendumu. Statistically significant differences (P < 0.05 or less) were found between Broadbeach and other recent groups in upper first premolar and first and second molar length and lower second incisor, canine, premolar, and second molar length. Statistically significant differences between Broadbeach and Roonka were found only in lower first molar and first incisor and upper canine breadth.
These findings suggest a rather irregular distribution of tooth size within Australia, with abrupt disconformities. The Swanport and Roonka sites, which are less than 30 miles apart, differ more in tooth size than Roonka and Broadbeach or Swanport and Kalumburu, which are more than 2,000 miles apart. This pattern is repeated within Queensland. The dif- ferences in cranial and mandibular dimensions found between Broadbeach and other Queens- land and New South Wales sites by Freedman and Wood (1977) are reflected in tooth size. Molar tooth measurements of the New South Wales sample were found by Hanihara (1976)
to show no differences from those of Yuendumu .
The differences in molar size are repeated in molar cusp number. Richards and Telfer (1979) reported that at Kalumburu 85% of se- cond molars have more than four cusps, at Swanport 72%, and at Yuendumu only 49%. In their study, the specimens lacking the hypoconulid but with a sixth or seventh cusp were included in the "more than four cusps" category, so that the percentage of second molars with hypoconulids present in their samples, may be even less than that reported here.
The distribution of other discrete traits that appear to be independent of tooth size (Garnet al., 1966; Keene, 1968; Smith, 1977) shows fewer differences (Table 6). The frequency of Carabelli's cusp is similar at all sites except Yuendumu, and the frequency of sixth and seventh cusps is similar at Broadbeach and Yuendumu. The main differences found are in shoveling, which is more pronounced at Kalumburu and Yuendumu.
With the exception of Hanihara's study (Hanihara, 1976), most published dataon tooth size in other skeletal material from Australia is based on samples including unknown propor- tions of males and females. The mean values calculated for tooth size in a mixed series by Campbell (1929, which included material from most parts of Australia and for the Murray Black Collection' by Gabrial (1955), are smaller than those found for Broadbeach, but may be biased by the inclusion of differing pro-
~ .. ~~~
'The Murray Hlack Collection campri%s somc hundreds CJS skelrtons collected over a period uf years tram undated sites along the Murray River Valley (Sunderland and Nay. 19591. Some of these sites may tic fairly old, as rddiocarhon dates obtained troin recently excavated sites in the same region are in the 4001)-6000 H.P. range IHlackwood and Simpson. 19731.
428 P. SMITH, T. BROWN, AND W.B. WOOD
TABLE 3. Distribution of discrete traits in Broadbeach molars
Lower molars
M3 M* M, No. % No. % No. %
Cusp pattern Y5 Y4 x 5 x 4
- - 1 4 1 4 - -
+ 5 17 85 20 88 + 4 2 10 1 4 Total 20 100 23 100
Sixth cusp Absent 10 67 10 53 2 grooves 1 6 1 5 Sm. than 5th cusp 4 27 7 37
1 5 Equal to 5th cusp - -
Total 15 100 19 100
18 86 - - - - 1 5 2 9
21 100 - -
8 35
12 52 - -
3 13 23 100
Seventh cusp Absent 13 93 20 95 25 92
1 4
21 100 27 100 Total 14
Absent 9 45 7 27 8 53 Pit 11 55 18 69 16 67 Small cusp - -
Total 20 100 26 100 24 100
- - - Lingual groove - Double groove 1 7 1 5 1 4
100
Protostylid
- - 1 4
Upper molars
M3 M2 M' No. % No. % No. %
6 16 37 86 Normal - -
Small 20 80 25 78 5 14 Reduced 5 20 2 6
25 100 32 100 42 100 Total
Metacone reduction
- -
Hypocone reduction Normal 1 5 1 4 14 35
Reduced 11 50 11 38 4 10 Absent 4 18 1 4 2 5
Small 6 27 16 55 20 50
Total 22 100 29 100 40 100
Additional cusps on marginal ridge
None Present on mesial marginal ridge Present on distal marginal ridge On both Total
Absent Pit Double furrow Y-shaped groove Prominence Small cusp Total
Carabelli's cusp
2 9 3 21 3 17
3 17 1 5
18 86 11 79 9 49 - 3 17
21 100 14 100 18 100
- -
- - -
16 74 2 9 2 9 2 9
22 91
1 3 1 3 1 3
- - 20 67
2 7 3 10 3 10 1 3 1 3
22 100 24 100 30 100 - - - -
TA
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No.
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No.
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No.
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No.
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No.
X
S
D
1'
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7
9.2
0.3
206
9.4
0.6
16
BL
9
7.9
0.4
205
7.9
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10
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D
11
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203
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16
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14
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BL
M
D
BL
16
19
20
18
20
23
26
20
23
16
17
9.2
7.6'
10
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7.3
10.4
11
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13.0
10
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13.5
9.
8 12
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0.7
0.4
0.5
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0.5
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0.6
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0.6
0.7
186
200
199
191
191
208
208
158
154 57
48
9.0
7.6'
10
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7.1
10.2
11
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12.5
10
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12.8
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12.3
0.6
0.4
0.5
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.6
0.6
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10
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16
13
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9.2
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n av
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from
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(P>O
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whe
n m
ean
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ompa
red using
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0.7
0.9
0.4
0.3
0.6
7 11 9 17
17
18
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17
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17
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17
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18
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n A
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Swan
port
No.
X
SD
-
MD
5
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11
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D
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0.4
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12
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D
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BL
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16
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17
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8.
2 7.
5'
9.1
7.7
8.9
12.5
11
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12.5
11
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11.7
11
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0.4
0.7
0.4
0.6
0.6
0.7
0.5
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.7
0.8
Y ue
ndum
u -
No.
X
20
6 5.
8 20
6 6.
6 20
6 6.
6 19
6 6.
8 19
8 7.
4'
183
8.2
196
7.5'
19
6 8.
8 18
5 7.
5'
183
9.2
205
12.0
20
6 11
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176
11.4
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54
11.7
59
11
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-
SD
0.
4 0.
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4 0.
4 0.
4 0.
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6 0.
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5 0.
6 0.
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7
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ay
No.
X
SD
N
o.
X
SD
14
6.0
0.4
2 5.
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6.4
0.5
6 6.
9 0.
7 3
15
6.5'
0.
7 2
6.8
-
6.7
0.5
7 6.
7 0.
3 5
11
7.3'
0.
5 4
7.8
0.6
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11
7.6'
0.
6 2
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10
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0.5
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1 0.
6 18
12
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0.8
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0.4
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0.5
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0.7
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0.3
2 11
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-
4 11
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-
No.
10
11
9 12
13
17
14
17
14
18
10
17
16
19
16
16
Roo
nka
- X
SD
6.6'
0.
3 6.
6 0.
4 7.
2 0.
2 6.
9 0.
3 7.
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1 0.
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ased
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ight
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es w
here
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DENTITION OF BROADBEACH ABORIGINES 431
?'ABLE 6. llistribution of dental traits in aboriginals* ~.
I ' M' M , M,
Shoveling Carabelh's cusp 6 th cusp 7th cusp 5th cusp
Broadbeach 0.54 0.03 0.65 0.08 0.92 - 0.85 Kalumburu 0.90 0.27 -
Anson Bay 0.57 0.00 - 0.50 - 0.72 Swanport 0.60 0.03 -
Yuendumu 0.85 0.16 0.52 0.06 0.49
~
portions of smaller-toothed females. However, even the maximum values recorded by Gabriel (1955) are smaller for all teeth than those recorded for Broadbeach, suggesting a real dif- ference in tooth size between these two groups.
Brace (1980) described a north-south cline in tooth size, with the smallest teeth in the north. This he attributed to admixture of the in- digenous population with smaller-toothed groups entering the continent from the north, and Broadbeach outside the main wave of gene flow. However, many of the samples used by Brace were small in size, some were of uncer- tain provenience, and their sex ratio may have varied. Brown and Townsend (1980) calculated that differences in sex ratio of samples studied by Brace would produce a difference of the order of size used by him to denote biological differences between groups.
Our findings, based on the data presented here, suggest a rather more irregular distribu- tion of large-toothed and small-toothed groups within Australia, with the smallest-toothed group in the central desert, tooth size in Nor- thern and Southern coastal groups remarkably similar, and the largest-toothed group a t Broadbeach in the South East.
Smith (1979a, 1980) and Brown and Town- send (1980) have proposed that these dif- ferences may be related to regional differences in environmental conditions. Brown and Town- send (1980) have also pointed out that there is a high concentration of fluoride in the drinking water a t Yuendumu, and that this may further affect tooth size in individuals from that region. Smith (1979a, b, 1980) reported on regional differences in tooth size within recent populations in South America, and in terminal Paleolithic and epipaleolithic populations in North Africa and the Near East. In both areas, tooth size diffferences are associated with dif- ferences in environmental conditions and food resources utilized.
These findings lend further support t o the hypothesis that local adaptations to dif- ferences in environmental conditions, rather than gene flow, may account for differences in tooth size within Australia.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was supported in part by grants in aid from the Wenner-Gren Founda- tion and the Joint Research Fund of Hadassah and Alpha Omega.
We thank the trustees of the South Austral- ian Museum for permission to examine material in their care, and Ms. W. Lambert for help with data analysis.
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