Incongruity between Affinity Patterns Based on Mandibular and Lower Dental Dimensions following the Transition to Agriculture in the Near East, Anatolia and Europe

While it has been suggested that malocclusion is linked with urbanisation, it remains unclear as to whether its high prevalence began 8,000 years earlier concomitant with the transition to agriculture. Here we investigate the extent to which patterns of affinity (i.e., among-population distances), based on mandibular form and dental dimensions, respectively, match across Epipalaeolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic samples from the Near East/Anatolia and Europe. Analyses were conducted using morphological distance matrices reflecting dental and mandibular form for the same 292 individuals across 21 archaeological populations. Thereafter, statistical analyses were undertaken on four sample aggregates defined on the basis of their subsistence strategy, geography, and chronology to test for potential differences in dental and mandibular form across and within groups. Results show a clear separation based on mandibular morphology between European hunter-gatherers, European farmers, and Near Eastern transitional farmers and semi-sedentary hunter-gatherers. In contrast, the dental dimensions show no such pattern and no clear association between the position of samples and their temporal or geographic attributes. Although later farming groups have, on average, smaller teeth and mandibles, shape analyses show that the mandibles of farmers are not simply size-reduced versions of earlier hunter-gatherer mandibles. Instead, it appears that mandibular form underwent a complex series of shape changes commensurate with the transition to agriculture that are not reflected in affinity patterns based on dental dimensions. In the case of hunter-gatherers there is a correlation between inter-individual mandibular and dental distances, suggesting an equilibrium between these two closely associated morphological units. However, in the case of semi-sedentary hunter-gatherers and farming groups, no such correlation was found, suggesting that the incongruity between dental and mandibular form began with the shift towards sedentism and agricultural subsistence practices in the core region of the Near East and Anatolia.

[1]  B. Wood Malocclusion in the modern Alaskan Eskimo. , 1971, American journal of orthodontics.

[2]  R. Corruccini An epidemiologic transition in dental occlusion in world populations. , 1984, American journal of orthodontics.

[3]  C. Ruff,et al.  Dietary effects on development of the human mandibular corpus. , 2011, American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

[4]  Ø. Hammer,et al.  PAST: PALEONTOLOGICAL STATISTICAL SOFTWARE PACKAGE FOR EDUCATION AND DATA ANALYSIS , 2001 .

[5]  R. Corruccini,et al.  Genetic basis of dental occlusal variations in northwest Indian twins. , 1986, European journal of orthodontics.

[6]  G. Ito,et al.  Malocclusion and its Pathogenic Factors in Skeletal Remains from West Japan , 1984 .

[7]  B. Smith,et al.  Patterns of molar wear in hunger-gatherers and agriculturalists. , 1984, American journal of physical anthropology.

[8]  A. Christensen Odontometric microevolution in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. , 1998, Journal of human evolution.

[9]  Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel,et al.  Global human mandibular variation reflects differences in agricultural and hunter-gatherer subsistence strategies , 2011 .

[10]  D. L. Greene,et al.  Tooth Wear and Culture: A Survey of Tooth Functions Among Some Prehistoric Populations [and Comments and Reply] , 1972, Current Anthropology.

[11]  Ofer Bar-Yosef,et al.  Last hunters - first farmers : new perspectives on the prehistoric transition to agriculture , 1999 .

[12]  A. K. Lehrbuch der Ánthropologie in Systematischer Darstellung Mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der anthropologischen Methoden für studierende Aerzte und Forschungsreisende , 1915, Nature.

[13]  Jerome C Rose,et al.  Origins of dental crowding and malocclusions: an anthropological perspective. , 2009, Compendium of continuing education in dentistry.

[14]  Niswander Jd Further studies on the Xavante Indians. VII. The oral status of the Xavantes of Simões Lopes. , 1967 .

[15]  D. R. Harris,et al.  Foraging and farming: the evolution of plant exploitation. , 1991 .

[16]  R. Pinhasi,et al.  Skull and limb morphology differentially track population history and environmental factors in the transition to agriculture in Europe , 2013, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[17]  R. Corruccini,et al.  Effects of dietary consistency on craniofacial and occlusal development in the rat. , 2009, The Angle orthodontist.

[18]  S. Bishara,et al.  Dental and facial asymmetries: a review. , 2009, The Angle orthodontist.

[19]  N. Mantel The detection of disease clustering and a generalized regression approach. , 1967, Cancer research.

[20]  W. A. Price Eskimo and Indian field studies in Alaska and Canada. , 1936 .

[21]  R. Corruccini,et al.  Occlusal variation related to soft diet in a nonhuman primate. , 1982, Science.

[22]  C. Larsen BIOLOGICAL CHANGES IN HUMAN POPULATIONS WITH AGRICULTURE , 1995 .

[23]  Nir Shpack,et al.  Malocclusion in Early Anatomically Modern Human: A Reflection on the Etiology of Modern Dental Misalignment , 2013, PloS one.

[24]  Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel,et al.  Global human mandibular variation re fl ects differences in agricultural and hunter-gatherer subsistence strategies , 2011 .

[25]  Charles H. M. Williams An Investigation Concerning the Dentitions of the Eskimos of Canada's Eastern Arctic , 1943 .

[26]  R. Corruccini,et al.  Odontometric asymmetry in Punjabi twins with special reference to methods for detecting spurious genetic variance. , 1989, Archives of oral biology.

[27]  G. Townsend,et al.  Occlusal variation in Australian aboriginals. , 1990, American journal of physical anthropology.

[28]  J. Rose,et al.  Gross Dental Wear and Dental Microwear in Historical Perspective , 1998 .

[29]  J. Relethford,et al.  Detection of differential gene flow from patterns of quantitative variation. , 1990, Human biology.

[30]  P. Mossey The heritability of malocclusion: Part 1--Genetics, principles and terminology. , 1999, British journal of orthodontics.

[31]  C. Lavelle Variation in the secular changes in the teeth and dental arches. , 1973, The Angle orthodontist.

[32]  R. Pinhasi,et al.  A revised chronology for the adoption of agriculture in the Southern Levant and the role of Lateglacial climatic change , 2011 .

[33]  G. Davies Dental Conditions Among the Polynesians of Pukapuka (Danger Island) , 1956, Journal of dental research.

[34]  C. Moorrees,et al.  Mesiodistal Crown Diameters of the Deciduous and Permanent Teeth in Individuals , 1957, Journal of dental research.

[35]  M. Wolpoff Metric trends in hominid dental evolution , 1971 .

[36]  O Hammer-Muntz,et al.  PAST: paleontological statistics software package for education and data analysis version 2.09 , 2001 .

[37]  W. Jungers,et al.  Shape, relative size, and size‐adjustments in morphometrics , 1995 .

[38]  R. Pinhasi,et al.  Evolutionary changes in the masticatory complex following the transition to farming in the southern Levant. , 2008, American journal of physical anthropology.

[39]  R. Pinhasi,et al.  Dental Reduction and the Transition to Agriculture in Europe , 2011 .

[40]  A.Brigitte Demes,et al.  Anthropologie. Handbuch der vergleichenden biologie des menschen , 1991 .

[41]  J. D. Niswander Further studies on the Xavante Indians. VII. The oral status of the Xavantes of Simões Lopes. , 1967, American journal of human genetics.

[42]  A. Nigel Goring-Morris,et al.  Neolithization Processes in the Levant , 2011, Current Anthropology.

[43]  Ron Pinhasi,et al.  Human bioarchaeology of the transition to agriculture , 2011 .

[44]  D. Lieberman,et al.  Effects of food processing on masticatory strain and craniofacial growth in a retrognathic face. , 2004, Journal of human evolution.

[45]  I. Hershkovitz,et al.  Tooth wear and dental pathology at the advent of agriculture: new evidence from the Levant. , 2006, American journal of physical anthropology.

[46]  Ofer Bar-Yosef,et al.  The Natufian culture in the Levant, threshold to the origins of agriculture , 1998 .

[47]  A. Lombardi The adaptive value of dental crowding: a consideration of the biologic basis of malocclusion. , 1982, American journal of orthodontics.

[48]  D. Davies The influence of teeth, diet, and habits on the human face , 1972 .

[49]  J. Varrela Masticatory Function and Malocclusion: A Clinical Perspective , 2006 .

[50]  W. Jungers,et al.  Morphometrics of the callitrichid forelimb: A case study in size and shape , 1993, International Journal of Primatology.

[51]  Ian Kuijit Pre-Pottery Neolithic A Settlement Variability: Evidence for Sociopolitical Developments in the Southern Levant , 1994 .

[52]  E. Hunt Malocclusion and civilization. , 1961, American journal of orthodontics.

[53]  Katherine I. Wright Ground-Stone Tools and Hunter-Gatherer Subsistence in Southwest Asia: Implications for the Transition to Farming , 1994, American Antiquity.

[54]  L. D. Whitley,et al.  Occlusal variation in a rural Kentucky community. , 1981, American journal of orthodontics.

[55]  H W Fields,et al.  Prevalence of malocclusion and orthodontic treatment need in the United States: estimates from the NHANES III survey. , 1998, The International journal of adult orthodontics and orthognathic surgery.

[56]  Grant C Townsend,et al.  Tooth wear and the "design" of the human dentition: a perspective from evolutionary medicine. , 2003, American journal of physical anthropology.

[57]  C. E. Snow,et al.  Preliminary Report On the Skeletal Material from Pickwick Basin, Alabama , 1942 .

[58]  T. Smith The Evolution of the Human Head , 2012 .

[59]  W. Scheidt Lehrbuch der Anthropologie , 1948 .

[60]  R. Corruccini How Anthropology Informs the Orthodontic Diagnosis of Malocclusion's Causes , 1999 .

[61]  D. R. Harris,et al.  Foraging and Farming: The Evolution of Plant Exploitation , 1990 .

[62]  W. Price Studies of Relationships between Nutritional Deficiencies and (a) Facial and Dental Arch Deformities and (b) Loss of Immunity to Dental Caries among South Sea Islanders and Florida Indians. , 1935 .

[63]  M. Zeder The Origins of Agriculture in the Near East , 2011, Current Anthropology.