Anterior tooth growth periods in Neandertals were comparable to those of modern humans
Anterior tooth growth periods in Neandertals were comparable to those of modern humans
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DOI：
10.1073/pnas.0503108102
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发表时间：
2005-10-04
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Larsen, CS
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Guatelli-Steinberg, D;Reid, DJ;Larsen, CS
在古人类学中，一个长期存在的争议围绕着尼安德特人是否与现代人一样经历了漫长的生长期。为了解决这个问题，这项调查比较了尼安德特人与三个比较现代人类群体的牙釉质形成的持续时间。由于牙齿和躯体生长彼此相关，牙齿生长期指示生长的总体时期。尼安德特人、现代因纽特人以及来自纽卡斯尔和南部非洲的现代人的前牙生长增量被计算并比较了他们的平均值。此外，潜在的变化所代表的时间跨度的增长增量被认为是纳入分析的釉质形成时间。这些分析表明，尼安德特人的叠瓦状釉质形成时间，虽然可能比因纽特人的快，但不太可能比纽卡斯尔样本的快，而且有些牙齿的形成时间明显比南部非洲样本的慢。因此，尼安德特人的牙齿生长，并通过扩展，躯体生长，似乎包括在现代人类的种群间变异范围内。
A longstanding controversy in paleoanthropology surrounds the question of whether Neandertals shared the prolonged growth periods of modern humans. To address this question, this investigation compares the duration of enamel formation in Neandertals with that of three comparative modern human groups. Because dental and somatic growth are correlated with each other, dental growth periods are indicative of overall periods of growth. Growth increments on the anterior teeth of Neandertals, modern Inuit, and modern people from Newcastle and southern Africa were counted and their means compared. In addition, potential variation in the time spans represented by growth increments was considered and incorporated into the analysis of enamel formation times. These analyses show that Neandertal imbricational enamel formation times, although likely to have been faster than those of the Inuit, are not likely to have been faster than those of the Newcastle sample and for some teeth are clearly slower than those of the southern African sample. Thus, Neandertal tooth growth and, by extension, somatic growth, appears to be encompassed within the modern human range of interpopulation variation.