Beynon A D, Wood B A
Nature. 1987;326(6112):493-6. doi: 10.1038/326493a0.
A recent study of the surface manifestation of incremental lines associated with enamel formation suggested that the crowns of early hominid incisor teeth were formed more rapidly than those of modern humans. In the absence of comparative data, the authors were forced to assume that enamel increments in fossil teeth were similar to those in modern humans. We have used evidence from the fractured surfaces of molar teeth to deduce estimates for both long- and short-period incremental growth markers within enamel in east African 'robust' australopithecine and early Homo teeth. We conclude that in these early hominids, crown formation times in posterior teeth, particularly in the large thick enamelled molar teeth of the east African 'robust' australopithecines, were shorter than those of modern humans. This evidence, considered together with data on crown and root formation times in modern apes, suggests that the posterior teeth in these hominids both formed and erupted more rapidly than those of modern man. These results have implications for attempts to assess dental and skeletal maturity in hominids.
最近一项关于与牙釉质形成相关的生长线表面表现的研究表明，早期原始人类门齿的牙冠形成速度比现代人类更快。由于缺乏比较数据，作者不得不假定化石牙齿中的牙釉质生长增量与现代人类相似。我们利用臼齿断裂面的证据，推断出东非“粗壮型”南方古猿和早期人类牙齿牙釉质内长期和短期生长增量标记的估计值。我们得出结论，在这些早期原始人类中，后牙的牙冠形成时间，尤其是东非“粗壮型”南方古猿厚大的臼齿，比现代人类短。这一证据，再结合现代猿类牙冠和牙根形成时间的数据，表明这些原始人类的后牙形成和萌出速度都比现代人快。这些结果对评估原始人类牙齿和骨骼成熟度的尝试具有启示意义。
