Disentangling isolated dental remains of Asian Pleistocene hominins and pongines

  • Scholars have debated the taxonomic identity of isolated primate teeth from the Asian Pleistocene for over a century, which is complicated by morphological and metric convergence between orangutan (Pongo) and hominin (Homo) molariform teeth. Like Homo erectus, Pongo once showed considerable dental variation and a wide distribution throughout mainland and insular Asia. In order to clarify the utility of isolated dental remains to document the presence of hominins during Asian prehistory, we examined enamel thickness, enamel-dentine junction shape, and crown development in 33 molars from G. H. R. von Koenigswald's Chinese Apothecary collection (11 Sinanthropus officinalis [= Homo erectus], 21 “Hemanthropus peii,” and 1 “Hemanthropus peii” or Pongo) and 7 molars from Sangiran dome (either Homo erectus or Pongo). All fossil teeth were imaged with non-destructive conventional and/or synchrotron micro-computed tomography. These were compared to H. erectus teeth from Zhoukoudian, Sangiran and Trinil, and a large comparative sample of fossil Pongo, recent Pongo, and recent human teeth. We find that Homo and Pongo molars overlap substantially in relative enamel thickness; molar enamel-dentine junction shape is more distinctive, with Pongo showing relatively shorter dentine horns and wider crowns than Homo. Long-period line periodicity values are significantly greater in Pongo than in H. erectus, leading to longer crown formation times in the former. Most of the sample originally assigned to S. officinalis and H. erectus shows greater affinity to Pongo than to the hominin comparative sample. Moreover, enamel thickness, enamel-dentine junction shape, and a long-period line periodicity value in the “Hemanthropus peii” sample are indistinguishable from fossil Pongo. These results underscore the need for additional recovery and study of associated dentitions prior to erecting new taxa from isolated teeth.

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Author:Tanya M. Smith, Alexandra Houssaye, Ottmar KullmerORCiDGND, Adeline Le Cabec, Anthony J. Olejniczak, Friedemann SchrenkORCiDGND, John de Vos, Paul Tafforeau
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-474523
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204737
ISSN:1932-6203
Pubmed Id:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30383758
Parent Title (English):PLoS one
Publisher:PLoS
Place of publication:Lawrence, Kan.
Contributor(s):Alistair Robert Evans
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Year of Completion:2018
Date of first Publication:2018/11/01
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2018/11/06
Tag:Dentin; Dentition; Hominins; Homo erectus; Molars; Orangutans; Paleobiology; Teeth
Volume:13
Issue:(11): e0204737
Page Number:23
First Page:1
Last Page:23
Note:
Copyright: © 2018 Smith et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
HeBIS-PPN:439888166
Institutes:Angeschlossene und kooperierende Institutionen / Senckenbergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft
Biowissenschaften / Institut für Ökologie, Evolution und Diversität
Wissenschaftliche Zentren und koordinierte Programme / Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Afrikaforschung (ZIAF)
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 59 Tiere (Zoologie) / 590 Tiere (Zoologie)
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0