Acta Anthropologica Sinica ›› 1993, Vol. 12 ›› Issue (02): 103-112.

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Morphological variation of dentition in two ancient inhabitants China

Zhang Zhenbiao   

  • Online:1993-06-15 Published:1993-06-15

Abstract: Of late years, many scholars have paid great attention to the morphological study of dental variations. They believe that non- -metric dental traits of modern human populations reflect not simply phenotypic plasticity but also genetic change.
In the present study, the author described the morphological variations in two ancient inhabitants represented by the skulls from Bronze Age in Changyang county and Bei Weidy nasty in Datong city. Fifteen discrete characters of the dentition were observed. Based on these findings, the relationship between the ancient inhabitants and neighbouring populations in biological character was discussed.
The findings of the present study indicated that the variations of dentition were existed clearly in ancient Chinese as the modern human populations. From the comparison andanalysis, the author found that the dental anthropological pattern in Bronze- Age and BeiWei Dynasty belongs to the same type "Sinodonty". However, the former in minor dental morphology is similar to the Southeast A sia(Sundadonty) and the latter is similar to the Northeast Asia(Sinodonty).

Key words: Morphological variation; Dentition; Relationship between populations; Bronze-Age; Bei Wei Dynasty; Changyang county and Datong city