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September 20, 2005

Tooth Perikymata and The Length of a Neanderthal's Childhood

Alun calls our attention to a press release announcing work by Debra Guatelli-Steinberg, an anthropologist at Ohio State, suggesting that Neanderthal children may have matured slower than previously thought. It has often been claimed that Neanderthal children matured faster than Homo sapiens children. This new study suggest that they may have matured at the about the same rates. Alun publishes the press release and provides an interesting commentary.

Here's the heart of the press release. Go to Alun's great blog to read it all.

For the study, the researchers used precise dental impressions Guatelli-Steinberg and Larsen made of 55 teeth believed to come from 30 Neanderthal individuals. These were compared to 65 teeth from 17 Inuit, 134 teeth from 114 southern Africans and 115 teeth from as many Newcastle residents. In all cases, the researchers tallied the number of perikymata on the enamel surface of the teeth.

Guatelli-Steinberg said that the results showed that the enamel formation times for the Neanderthals fell easily within the range of time shown by teeth from the three modern populations – a conclusion that did not support a shorter childhood for the Neanderthals.

Enticing though it may be, these new findings haven’t convinced the researchers that a Neanderthal childhood was equal to a modern human’s.

“The missing key bit of data to show that would be evidence for when the first molar tooth erupted in the Neanderthals, and we simply have no evidence of when that occurred,” she said.

If you're not sure what the perikymata on the enamel of the tooth are you might want to read about it here and here. I did.

I like the fact that Guatelli-Steinberg is not overstating her claim.

Update: afarenisis has a strong post on this study complete with pictures of teeth and perikymata.

Posted by DuaneSmith at September 20, 2005 03:44 PM | Read more on Paleoanthropology |

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Comments

Darn! You and Alun beat me to it! I think it was a good piece of research.

Posted by: afarensis at September 20, 2005 05:05 PM

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