The Qesem Cave hominin material (part 2): A morphometric analysis of dm(2)-QC2 deciduous lower second molar

摘要

The Qesem Cave Middle Pleistocene hominin site has yielded a well preserved lower second deciduous molar (dm(2)-QC2), among several other human dental remains. It has been previously described by Hershkovitz et al. using traditional methods. In this study, we used multiple approaches in order to characterize the outer and inner morphology of dm2-QC2, namely a descriptive investigation of the inner morphology, analysis of the dental tissues, and comparative 3D geometric morphometric investigation of various aspects of the dental crown based on data gathered from mu CT images. Dm(2)-QC2 was compared to a sample of 44 specimens, including recent and fossil modern humans, Neanderthals, and Homo erectus.