Anterior dental microwear texture analysis of the Krapina Neandertals
Abstract Some Neandertal anterior teeth show unusual and excessive gross wear, commonly explained by non-dietary anterior tooth use, or using the anterior dentition as a tool, clamp, or third hand. This alternate use is inferred from aboriginal arctic populations, who used their front teeth in this...
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Walter de Gruyter GmbH
2012
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/s13533-012-0111-1 http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.2478/s13533-012-0111-1.pdf http://link.springer.com/article/10.2478/s13533-012-0111-1/fulltext.html https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.2478/s13533-012-0111-1/xml https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.2478/s13533-012-0111-1/pdf |
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crdegruyter:10.2478/s13533-012-0111-1 2023-05-15T13:14:29+02:00 Anterior dental microwear texture analysis of the Krapina Neandertals Krueger, Kristin Ungar, Peter 2012 http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/s13533-012-0111-1 http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.2478/s13533-012-0111-1.pdf http://link.springer.com/article/10.2478/s13533-012-0111-1/fulltext.html https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.2478/s13533-012-0111-1/xml https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.2478/s13533-012-0111-1/pdf en eng Walter de Gruyter GmbH http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ CC-BY-NC-ND Open Geosciences volume 4, issue 4, page 651-662 ISSN 2391-5447 General Earth and Planetary Sciences Environmental Science (miscellaneous) journal-article 2012 crdegruyter https://doi.org/10.2478/s13533-012-0111-1 2022-05-11T14:47:40Z Abstract Some Neandertal anterior teeth show unusual and excessive gross wear, commonly explained by non-dietary anterior tooth use, or using the anterior dentition as a tool, clamp, or third hand. This alternate use is inferred from aboriginal arctic populations, who used their front teeth in this manner. Here we examine anterior dental microwear textures of the Krapina Neandertals to test this hypothesis and further analyze tooth use in these hominins. Microwear textures from 17 Krapina Dental People were collected by white-light confocal profilometry using a 100x objective lens. Four adjacent scans were generated, totaling an area of 204x276 μm, and were analyzed using Toothfrax and SFrax SSFA software packages. The Neandertals were compared to six bioarchaeological/ethnographic samples with reported variation in diet, abrasive load, and non-dietary anterior tooth use. Results indicate that Krapina anterior teeth lack extreme microwear textures expected of hominins exposed to heavy abrasives or those that regularly generated high stresses associated with intense use of the front teeth as tools. Krapina hominins have microwear attributes in common with Coast Tsimshian, Aleut, and Puye Pueblo samples. Collectively, this suggests that the Krapina Neandertals faced moderate abrasive loads and only periodically used their anterior teeth as tools for non-diet related behaviors. Article in Journal/Newspaper aleut Arctic Tsimshian Tsimshian* De Gruyter (via Crossref) Arctic Open Geosciences 4 4 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
De Gruyter (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crdegruyter |
language |
English |
topic |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences Environmental Science (miscellaneous) |
spellingShingle |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences Environmental Science (miscellaneous) Krueger, Kristin Ungar, Peter Anterior dental microwear texture analysis of the Krapina Neandertals |
topic_facet |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences Environmental Science (miscellaneous) |
description |
Abstract Some Neandertal anterior teeth show unusual and excessive gross wear, commonly explained by non-dietary anterior tooth use, or using the anterior dentition as a tool, clamp, or third hand. This alternate use is inferred from aboriginal arctic populations, who used their front teeth in this manner. Here we examine anterior dental microwear textures of the Krapina Neandertals to test this hypothesis and further analyze tooth use in these hominins. Microwear textures from 17 Krapina Dental People were collected by white-light confocal profilometry using a 100x objective lens. Four adjacent scans were generated, totaling an area of 204x276 μm, and were analyzed using Toothfrax and SFrax SSFA software packages. The Neandertals were compared to six bioarchaeological/ethnographic samples with reported variation in diet, abrasive load, and non-dietary anterior tooth use. Results indicate that Krapina anterior teeth lack extreme microwear textures expected of hominins exposed to heavy abrasives or those that regularly generated high stresses associated with intense use of the front teeth as tools. Krapina hominins have microwear attributes in common with Coast Tsimshian, Aleut, and Puye Pueblo samples. Collectively, this suggests that the Krapina Neandertals faced moderate abrasive loads and only periodically used their anterior teeth as tools for non-diet related behaviors. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Krueger, Kristin Ungar, Peter |
author_facet |
Krueger, Kristin Ungar, Peter |
author_sort |
Krueger, Kristin |
title |
Anterior dental microwear texture analysis of the Krapina Neandertals |
title_short |
Anterior dental microwear texture analysis of the Krapina Neandertals |
title_full |
Anterior dental microwear texture analysis of the Krapina Neandertals |
title_fullStr |
Anterior dental microwear texture analysis of the Krapina Neandertals |
title_full_unstemmed |
Anterior dental microwear texture analysis of the Krapina Neandertals |
title_sort |
anterior dental microwear texture analysis of the krapina neandertals |
publisher |
Walter de Gruyter GmbH |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/s13533-012-0111-1 http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.2478/s13533-012-0111-1.pdf http://link.springer.com/article/10.2478/s13533-012-0111-1/fulltext.html https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.2478/s13533-012-0111-1/xml https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.2478/s13533-012-0111-1/pdf |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
aleut Arctic Tsimshian Tsimshian* |
genre_facet |
aleut Arctic Tsimshian Tsimshian* |
op_source |
Open Geosciences volume 4, issue 4, page 651-662 ISSN 2391-5447 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.2478/s13533-012-0111-1 |
container_title |
Open Geosciences |
container_volume |
4 |
container_issue |
4 |
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