Fluctuating dental asymmetry and measurement error.

Differences between the dimensions of left and right molar teeth are analyzed in the context of measurement error while considering the power of the F-Ratio. Molar teeth from two Nubian cemeteries, 24-S-46 and 21-R-2, excavated at Kulubnarti, Sudan, were initially measured, and then remeasured to obtain data for assessing fluctuating dental asymmetry and measurement error. As has been demonstrated by other investigators, the power of the F-Ratio for detecting small, but real differences, that might exist between antimeric dimensions when sample sizes are small, as they usually are with archeological materials, limits interpretation. In addition, an analysis of measurement error indicates that such error can have a confounding effect upon interpretations of the degree of fluctuating dental asymmetry that exists even in very large samples that exceed the size of typical archeological samples.