TY - JOUR
T1 - Brief communication
T2 - A morphometric analysis of the neandertal upper second molar leuca i
AU - Benazzi, Stefano
AU - Bailey, Shara E.
AU - Mallegni, Francesco
PY - 2013/10
Y1 - 2013/10
N2 - The scarcity of Neandertal remains from Southern Europe hampers our understanding of Neandertal variability, and can bias interpretations about Neandertal geographic variation. To address this issue, it is often important to reassess human remains that, while discovered decades ago, remain relatively unknown to the scientific community. In this contribution, we provide a complete state-of-the-art comparative morphometric analysis of Leuca I, an unworn left second upper molar (LM2) discovered in 1958 in Bambino's Cave (near Santa Maria di Leuca, Apulia, Italy) and attributed to Homo neanderthalensis. Our study includes comparisons of standard metric and nonmetric data, a 2D image analysis of the occlusal surface and measurements of both 2D and 3D enamel thickness and dental tissue proportions. Although Leuca I follows the Neandertal M2s trend in some morphometric aspects (i.e., small relative occlusal polygon area), in other cases it falls to the higher end (for 3D average enamel thickness) or even outside (for 3D-relative enamel thickness) the Neandertal M2 variability, thus increasing the known Neandertal range of variation. Am J Phys Anthropol 152:300-305, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
AB - The scarcity of Neandertal remains from Southern Europe hampers our understanding of Neandertal variability, and can bias interpretations about Neandertal geographic variation. To address this issue, it is often important to reassess human remains that, while discovered decades ago, remain relatively unknown to the scientific community. In this contribution, we provide a complete state-of-the-art comparative morphometric analysis of Leuca I, an unworn left second upper molar (LM2) discovered in 1958 in Bambino's Cave (near Santa Maria di Leuca, Apulia, Italy) and attributed to Homo neanderthalensis. Our study includes comparisons of standard metric and nonmetric data, a 2D image analysis of the occlusal surface and measurements of both 2D and 3D enamel thickness and dental tissue proportions. Although Leuca I follows the Neandertal M2s trend in some morphometric aspects (i.e., small relative occlusal polygon area), in other cases it falls to the higher end (for 3D average enamel thickness) or even outside (for 3D-relative enamel thickness) the Neandertal M2 variability, thus increasing the known Neandertal range of variation. Am J Phys Anthropol 152:300-305, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
KW - Neandertal
KW - South Italy
KW - dental tissue proportions
KW - upper second molar
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U2 - 10.1002/ajpa.22355
DO - 10.1002/ajpa.22355
M3 - Article
C2 - 23999832
AN - SCOPUS:84884906434
SN - 0002-9483
VL - 152
SP - 300
EP - 305
JO - American Journal of Physical Anthropology
JF - American Journal of Physical Anthropology
IS - 2
ER -