Dental morphological affinities of Late Pleistocene through recent sub-Saharan and north African peoples

Résumé En

Summary. — The utility of dental morphological analysis of Sub-Saharan and North African peoples to estimate population origins and affinities has often been overlooked by anthropological researchers. The present report entails a summary review of four recent publications by the author that have addressed this shortcoming m three principal ways. First, 36 morphological features in 1 ,643 dentitions from over 30 samples throughout the continent have been recorded. The frequencies of trait occurrence in each sample are provided here. Second, these traits were compared among samples with the multivanate Mean Measure of Divergence (MMD) statistic; multidimensional scaling is employed to illustrate the MMD-based relationships. Assuming phenetic similarity parallels genetic relatedness, these biological distance estimates reveal that: (a) significant differences exist between most Sub-Saharan and North African samples; (b) dental homogeneity is evident within both regions; and (c) North African samples exhibit the greatest homogeneity. Third, pooled Sub- Saharan and North African trait frequencies were compared with published data from five non- African samples. It is shown that North Africans appear most like Europeans and perhaps western Asians; Sub-Saharan Africans are unlike all other samples. These findings, in conjunction with additional evidence presented in the recent publications, should contribute to an improved understanding of intra-African biological affinities and African dental relatedness to other world populations.