Human fossil teeth - Tables and bibliography

The aim of this web site is to provide comprehensive standard dental metrics for a large dental sample from the earliest hominins to modern humans. Much of the human fossil record is made up of teeth and their measurements are scattered in different journals -- some old and hard to get even in these "e-days". There are many still unpublished specimens. For many researchers it is difficult to assemble a data set for comparative studies and there is always the problem of inter-observer error. Our attempt here is to provide a data repository for comparative dental data using standard length/breadth crown metrics and root measurements when available. We encourage scholars to contribute their data sets in Excel to our website by contacting the webmster, J-L. Voisin at this adress.
In this web site, two types of data profiles are presented in an Excel 2003 format which are described HERE and see also the paper written by J-L.Voisin, S. Condemi, M.H. Wolpoff and D.W. Frayer .


Data Bases
Last update: Mars 22, 2023
New teeth: We have added teeth from Wezmeh (Iran) and Velika Balanica (Serbia). We have continued to add information about pathologies.

Look at ... User beware Look at ...
Lower Paleolithic Middle Paleolithic Upper Paleolithic Mesolithic Neolithic Modern human Great Apes Wolpoff & Frayer rawdata Bibliography



Table Captions

Tables contains 29 columns, from the first to the last one:

*Human group: Corresponds to which human group the tooth belongs to (Modern human, Anatomically modern human, Neandertal, etc.). This column disappears with Mesolithic remains
*Country: The country where the site is located
*Site: The name of the site (Cro-Magnon, Les Rois, etc.)
*Longitude and latitude: Only when precise site location is available from literature.
*Remains location: Where remains are housed (not yet available).
*Inventory number: The official number of the tooth
*Sex: Male (M) or Female (F) or unknown (?)
*Age: Age of the individual in year. Adult teeth are written in black, decidual ones in red and germ teeth in blue.
*Date: Age of the site, in year Before Present; using the most up-to-date information on age of the site (see column about bibliography).
*Period: Correspond to the  cultural period  which the tooth is associated (Aurignacian, Solutrean, etc).
*Source: From where the data were collected to fill the table : "literature" means data were taken from a description of the teeth (see column about bibliography), "Author (original)" means data were taken from tables sent by this author and measures were made on original remains (if casts have been used it is always noted). The publication(s) where these data are used is found in the column "first description".

The next 10 columns are about teeth. Each line (or each tooth) is divided in 4 groups: the first one, named "Tooth", the second one named "Crown", the third one named "Roots" and the fourth one named "Whole tooth". Unfortunately, most of the published data provide no information about roots.

*Tooth group
§Tooth: It is the tooth of the line (I1, I2, C, etc.)
§Right/Left: Corresponds to the tooth side.
§Upper/Lower: i.e. In other words, a mandibular (inferior or lower) or maxillary (superior or upper) tooth
*Crown group
§M.D.: Corresponds to the crown mesio-distal diameter (in mm).
§B.L.: Corresponds to the crown buccal (labial)-lingual diameter (in mm).
§Cervix M.D.: Corresponds to the cervix mesio-distal diameter (in mm).
§Cervix B.L.: Corresponds to the cervix buccal (labial)-lingual diameter (in mm).
§High C: Corresponds to the crown height (in mm) from its base to the top of the tooth.
§Pulp Volume: Correspond to the crown pulp volume (in mm3).
§Wear stage: The wear stage of the tooth is given according to different methods (mostly of them follow Molnar work). They should be used as a general indication of age since they are more subjective than metrics.
*Root
§M.D.: Corresponds to the root mesio-distal diameter (in mm).
§B.L.: Corresponds to the root buccal (labial)-lingual diameter (in mm).
§High R: Corresponds to the length of the root (in mm) from its base to the top of the apex.
§Volume R: Corresponds to the root volume (in mm3).
§Pulp Volume: Corresponds to the root pulp volume (in mm3)
*Whole tooth
§Maximum hight: Corresponds to the hight of the tooth from the highest point of the crown to the root apex.
§Pulp volume: Corresponds to the pulp volume of the whole tooth.
§Pathologies: If pathologies are described in any article, they are indicated. If there is no information on pathologies in article, the cell remains blank. "No pathology" is written when it is clearly stated in any article.
§DNA: If the tooth have been used for DNA extraction a "YES" is written in the cell, if not a NO is written.
*Bibliography: is divided in two columns : "First description" and "Datation". The "First description" column gives the reference of the first anatomical description of the tooth and/or the one used to complete this table and the "Datation" column gives the reference for the most recent study (for complete references select the link "bibliography" beside the link "Mesolithic table"). If no reference are indicated in the column, data come from the Oakley, Campbell and Molleson's Catalogue of Fossil Hominid (1971, 1975, 1977).
*Remarks: other informations that could be useful.
 
Contact us