How Neanderthal molar teeth grew

Roberto Macchiarelli, Luca Bondioli, André Debénath, Arnaud Mazurier, Jean-François Tournepiche, Wendy Birch and M. Christopher Dean ()
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Roberto Macchiarelli: Université de Poitiers
Luca Bondioli: Sezione di Antropologia, Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnografico ‘L. Pigorini’
André Debénath: Université de Perpignan
Arnaud Mazurier: Université de Poitiers
Jean-François Tournepiche: Musée d’Angoulême
Wendy Birch: University College London
M. Christopher Dean: University College London

Nature, 2006, vol. 444, issue 7120, 748-751

Abstract: Dental history Important aspects of life history and development, such as degree of development at birth, maturation rate and thus length of childhood, are sensitively recorded in the teeth, traceable through daily growth lines in the enamel and detailed analysis of molar extension and root formation. Neanderthals, the closest known relatives of modern humans, have been thought to have had very short childhoods in which individuals grew rapidly. This startling result is now corrected by an in-depth study on Neanderthal molars. Although the timing of molar crown and root completion in Neanderthals matches those known for modern humans, a more complex enamel–dentine junction and a late peak in molar root extension rate still sets them apart.

Date: 2006
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DOI: 10.1038/nature05314

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