Explores the insights that fossil hominin teeth provide about human evolution, linking findings with current debates in palaeoanthropology.

A global study of dental variation offering insights into modern human origins.

All humans share certain components of tooth structure, but show variation in size and morphology around this shared pattern. This book presents a worldwide synthesis of the global variation in tooth morphology in recent populations. Research has advanced on many fronts since the publication of the first edition, which has become a seminal work on the subject. This revised and updated edition introduces new ideas in dental genetics and ontogeny and summarizes major historical problems addressed by dental morphology. The detailed descriptions of 29 dental variables are fully updated with current data and include details of a new web-based application for using crown and root morphology to evaluate ancestry in forensic cases. A new chapter describes what constitutes a modern human dentition in the context of the hominin fossil record.

Whether we realize it or not, we carry in our mouths the legacy of our evolution. Our teeth are like living fossils that can be studied and compared to those of our ancestors to teach us how we became human. In Evolution’s Bite, noted paleoanthropologist Peter Ungar brings together for the first time cutting-edge advances in understanding human evolution with new approaches to uncovering dietary clues from fossil teeth. The result is a remarkable investigation into the ways that teeth—their shape, chemistry, and wear—reveal how we came to be. Traveling the four corners of the globe and combining scientific breakthroughs with vivid narrative, Evolution’s Bite presents a unique dental perspective on our astonishing human development.

This book provides information on nomenclature, tooth numbering systems, tooth morphology, and anatomy and stages of tooth formation. It continues with root canal morphology and anatomy of incisors, canines, premolars, and molars. External and internal anatomies of mandibular permanent incisors and maxillary permanent first molars are presented according to a literature review. Orofacial structures affecting tooth morphology are discussed in detail. The book ends with the evolution of dental implant shapes and todays custom root analog implants.

A valuable guide to scoring crown and root traits in human dentitions for ancestry estimation and biodistance analysis.