Morphological studies on Wuzhutai tooth, Xintai of Shandong Province

  • Chengkai SUN ,
  • Xiaoling SUN ,
  • Mi ZHOU ,
  • Liqun LIU ,
  • Song XING
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  • 1. Shandong Museum, Jinan 250014
    2. Hubei Museum, Wuhan 430077
    3. Institute of Archeology and Cultural Relics of Hubei Province, Wuhan 430077
    4. Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044
    5. CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Beijing, 100044

Received date: 2018-06-22

  Revised date: 2018-09-20

  Online published: 2020-09-10

Abstract

Recent fossil findings have complicated the scenario of East Asian modern human evolution and dispersal in Late Pleistocene, necessitating more fossil from this period to better elucidate it. In 1966, a lower molar of fossil human was recovered at Wuzhutai, Xintai of Shandong province, and Wu and Zong reported it in 1973. However, there is no further detailed study on this tooth afterwards. The present study will reassess its morphologies using grading system of dental non-metrics, geometric morphometric analysis of the crown outline shape, measurement of two- and three- dimensional (2D and 3D) enamel thickness, and visualization of 3D enamel thickness distribution. We aim at a further understanding of morphological variation of East Asian Late Pleistocene hominins. The results show that the dental morphologies of Wuzhutai tooth generally fit into the spectrum of modern human variations. However, its trigonid crest, Y pattern of occlusal groove arrangement, and high-degree protostylid are more likely found in Homo erectus or Neanderthals rather than in modern human. Compared with the other East Asian Late Pleistocene hominins, the combination of traits expressed by Wuzhutai tooth is unique and expanding the known morphological diversity. The future study could try to acquire the chronological age of Wuzhutai hominin, in order to better add it into the evolutionary sequence of modern human evolution.

Cite this article

Chengkai SUN , Xiaoling SUN , Mi ZHOU , Liqun LIU , Song XING . Morphological studies on Wuzhutai tooth, Xintai of Shandong Province[J]. Acta Anthropologica Sinica, 2019 , 38(03) : 446 -459 . DOI: 10.16359/j.cnki.cn11-1963/q.2018.0041

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