Main description:

The objective of the volume is to bring together, in one collection, the most innovative dental anthropological research as it pertains to the study of hominid evolution. In the past few decades both the numbers of hominid dental fossils and the sophistication of the techniques used to analyze them have increased substantially. The book's contributions focus on dental morphometrics, growth and development, diet and dental evolution.

Contents:

Foreword
S.E. Bailey and J-J. Hublin
Introduction
S. Hillson
PART I. DENTAL EVOLUTION and DENTAL MORPHOLOGY

1. Introduction
S.E. Bailey

2. Patterns of molar variation in great apes and their implications for hominin taxonomy
V. Pilbrow
3. Trends in postcanine occlusal morphology within the hominin clade: The case of Paranthropus
S.E. Bailey and B.A. Wood

4. Maxillary molars cusp morphology of South African australopithecines
J. Moggi-Cecchi and S. Boccone

5. Gran Dolina-TD6 and Sima de los Huesos dental samples: Preliminary approach to some dental characters of interest for phylogenetic studies
M. Martinon-Torres, J.M. Bermudez de Castro, A. Gomez-Robles, M. Bastir, S. Sarmiento, A. Muela, and J.L. Arsuaga

6. Neural network analysis by using the Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs) applied to human fossil dental morphology: a new methodology
F. Manni, R. Vargiu, and A. Coppa

7. Micro-computed tomography of primate molars: Methodological aspects of three-dimensional data collection
A. J. Olejniczak, F.E. Grine, and L.B. Martin

8. HRXCT analysis of hominoid molars: A quantitative volumetric analysis and 3D reconstruction of coronal enamel and dentin
D.G. Gantt, J. Kappelman, R.A. Ketcham

PART II. DENTAL MICROSTRUCTURE AND LIFE HISTORY

1. Introduction
R. Macchiarelli

2. Inferring primate growth, development and life history from dental microstructure: The case of the extinct Malagasy lemur, Megaladapis
G.T. Schwartz, L.R. Godfrey, and P. Mahoney

3. Histological study of an upper incisor and molar of a bonobo (Pan paniscus) individual
F. Ramirez-Rossi and R.LaCruz

4. New perspectives on chimpanzee and human molar crown development
T.M. Smith, D.J. Reid, M.C. Dean, A.J. Olejniczak, R.J. Ferrell, and L.B. Martin

5. Portable Confocal Scanning Optical Microscopy of Australopithecus africanus enamel structure
T. G. Bromage, R. LaCruz, A. Perez-Ochoa and A. Boyde

6. Imbricational enamel formation in Neandertals and recent modern humans
D. Guatelli-Steinberg, D.J. Reid, T.A. Bishop, and C. Spencer Larsen

PART III. DENTAL DEVELOPMENT

1. Introduction
B.A. Wood

2. Of mice and monkeys: Quantitative genetic analyses of size variation along the dental arcade
L.J. Hlusko and M.C. Mahaney

3. Quantifying variation in human dental development sequences: An EVO-DEVO perspective
J. Braga and Y. Heuze

4. Dental calcification stages of the permanent M1 and M2 in U.S. children of African American and European American ancestry born in the 1990s
J. Monge, A. Mann, A. Stout, J. Roger, and R. Wadenya
5. A computerized model for reconstruction of dental ontogeny: a new tool for studying evolutionary trends in the dentition
P. Smith, R. Muller, Y. Gabet and G. Avishai

PART IV. DENTITION AND DIET

1. Introduction
F.E. Grine

2. An evaluation of changes in strontium/calcium ratios across the neonatal line in human deciduous teeth
L.T. Humphrey, M.C. Dean and T.E. Jeffries

3. Dental topography and human evolution: With comments on the diets of Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus
P.S. Ungar

4. Dental microwear and paleoanthropology: cautions and possibilities
M.F. Teaford

5. Tooth wear and diversity in early hominid molars: a case