Dental morphological characteristics are useful for providing information for phylogenic and genetic studies and understanding variations within and among species. Carabelli and talon cusps are expressed in several degrees and different frequencies between humans, thus being useful in comparing and characterizing populations. The purpose of this study was to examine the incidence and degree of expression of a Carabelli tubercle and talon cusps in a contemporary Hungarian population compared with similar findings in the dentition of skulls dating from the 11th century, the so-called Arpád-era. The data were collected by examination of dental plaster casts of 600 children aged 7-18 years (304 males, 296 females) undergoing orthodontic treatment. The dentitions of 147 skulls, dating from the 11th century, from the ancient Halimba-Cseres cemetery stored at the Hungarian Natural History Museum were also examined. The incidence and degree of expression of a Carabelli cusp was investigated for the upper first permanent molars and scored according to an eight-grade classification system. The talon cusps on the upper permanent lateral incisors were also examined. A chi-square test was used for statistical analysis. The prevalence of Carabelli cusps was 65.34 per cent in the contemporary and 34 per cent in the 11th century population (P < 0.01). The contemporary group showed a prevalence of talon cusps of 2.5 per cent compared with 40.8 per cent for the skills from the Arpád-era, which was significant (P < 0.001). These findings demonstrate that the contemporary Hungarian population is a mixture of European and Mongoloid races. The data are in agreement with linguistic evidence that shows that distant Hungarian ancestors belonged to the Finno-Ugrian family of people, whose habitats extended from the Baltic to the middle Urals.