Incidence and patterning of dental enamel hypoplasia among the Neandertals

Abstract

Dental enamel hypoplasia (DEH), as an indicator of nonspecific stress during development, provides an assessment of the relative morbidity of past human populations. An investigation of 669 Neandertal dental crowns yielded an overall DEH frequency of 36.0% by tooth (41.9% for permanent teeth; 3.9% for deciduous teeth) and about 75% by individual. These incidences place the Neandertals at the top of recent human ranges of variation in DEH frequencies, indicating high levels of stress during development. The paucity of deciduous tooth DEH and M1 DEH, combined with generally increasing levels of DEH through later calcifying teeth, suggests that the stress was primarily nutritional, beginning at weaning and continuing through adolescence. This supports paleontological and archeological interpretations implying significantly lower effectiveness for Neandertal foraging compared to that of modern humans.

Late Pleistocene adult mortality patterns and modern human establishment

“…Paleopathological indicators of such stress, particularly in the form of dental enamel hypoplasias and healed traumatic lesions, are evident in all of these samples (32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37). Yet, there were decreases or stasis in the incidence of both forms of lesions among both Middle Paleolithic and earlier Upper Paleolithic modern humans relative to the late archaic humans (33,35,37,38).…”

Stable isotope evidence for increasing dietary breadth in the European mid-Upper Paleolithic

“…But these early foragers tended not to consume quick-moving small animals. Because large game are less biologically productive than small, quick terrestrial game animals, Neandertals would have been more susceptible to seasonal and annual resource fluctuations, a pattern reflected in their paleopathological (65) and mortality distributions (66). Generally low population densities are indicated by the Middle Paleolithic zooarcheological evidence (2).…”

Caries Through Time: An Anthropological Overview

“…The Neanderthals (230,000-30,000 BP) show a high prevalence of enamel hypoplasias, antemortem tooth loss, periodontal disease and abscesses but dental caries is very rare among them (Brennan, 1991;Brothwell, 1963;Grine et al, 1990;Ogilvie, 1989). Six cases (Table 1) of dental caries (0.48%) have been reported among the approximately 1250 known Neanderthal teeth (Lalueza et al, 1993;Lebel & Trinkaus, 2001;Tillier et al, 1995;Trinkaus et al, 2000;Walker et al, 2011).…”