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Abstract
Background: Previous studies have used molar tooth eruption as a comparative marker of maturation in early fossil hominins. However, tooth eruption and tooth formation are independent maturational processes.
Aim: To determine whether estimates of age for entering a stage of dental development in three early hominin fossils fell within the distribution of a modern human sample.
Methods: This study used a comparative model of dental development to identify the stages of dental development most likely to provide information about length of the growth period in early fossil hominins. Age estimates for stages of dental development in fossils were superimposed onto a normal distribution of the same radiographically defined stages derived from a sample of 6540 children of diverse geographical origin.
Results: Both within the dentition of S7–37, from Sangiran, Java, but also for stages of two other specimens (KNM-WT 15000 from Kenya and StW 151 from South Africa), all age estimates for later stages of tooth formation fell within the modern sample range.
Conclusions: A pattern appears to exist in early Homo where, both within and between developing dentitions, age estimates for stages of P4, M2 and M3 tooth formation fell consistently among the more advanced individuals of the modern human sample.
Acknowledgements
We thank the Committee Members and all involved in organizing the joint SSHB and BABAO Symposium on Age Estimation (9–11 December 2014) at St Catherine's College Oxford, where this paper was first read. For access to comparative collections of modern and fossil material we thank; The curators of The Hunterian Collection, Royal College of Surgeons of England; Elliot Smith Collection, UCL; W. Dirks, D. Reid, University of Newcastle upon Tyne; University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg; E. Mbua, M. Leakey, Palaeontology Department, The National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi; F. Schrenk, Forschungsinstitut Senkenberg, Frankfurt; and F. Elamin. Special thanks go to Lyle Konigsberg for help with R Script and to the editors and referee, Wendy Dirks and Adeline Le Cabec, for their helpful comments and suggestions.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.