Dental Anthropology: Fundamentals, Limits and Prospects
Edited by:
- Kurt W. Alt,
- Friedrich W. Rösing &
- Maria Teschler-Nicola
Springer: 1998. 564pp $89.95
Why teeth, and why the growth in interest? Teeth and bones are the main research material for anthropologists who study the fossil remains of hominids and other primates, human remains from archaeological sites, and forensic cases. There are particular advantages in studying teeth, however. They survive better in the ground because they are tougher and more heavily mineralized than bone, and they are among the most common fossils found. Teeth provide a protected environment for the survival of biochemical information and microscopic detail. Once formed in childhood, their component tissues do not turn over like bone, so the sequence of formation is preserved inside them as layered structures. Scattered teeth from one individual can be matched up by this layering pattern, and it is possible to reconstruct the timing of formation. Dental development is known from X-ray studies of living children and, as the sequence is less variable than bone development, it is the best method for estimating age at death in children's remains.
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