Neanderthal teeth from moula‐guercy, Ardèche, France

Abstract

Here we describe dental remains from a Neanderthal fossil assemblage from Moula-Guercy, France. Our report demonstrates that the Moula-Guercy hominid remains contribute important morphological, developmental, and behavioral data to understanding Neanderthal evolutionary history. We include gross comparative morphological descriptions and enamel surface microstructure and microwear data. These teeth reveal numerous characteristics that are diagnostic of Neanderthals and provide no evidence for the presence of any other hominid taxa. Enamel growth increment data from the Moula-Guercy specimens yield evidence of a Neanderthal pattern of development, although at the lower end of the range of variation. The presence of a significant number of linear enamel hypoplasias indicates that these individuals were stressed during childhood. Molar microwear data suggest that these Neanderthals did not differ significantly from modern humans in terms of the fracture properties of the food they were consuming. The incisor microwear and macro striations provide evidence that these individuals may have been using their anterior teeth as tools, similar to the practices of several modern human populations such as the Inuit, Ipiutak, and Australian Aboriginals, and reminiscent of evidence from other Neanderthals from Krapina, Croatia, as well as the 600,000 year old hominids from Sima de los Huesos, Spain. Am J Phys Anthropol 151:477-491, 2013.© 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Neanderthal axial and appendicular remains from Moula‐Guercy, Ardèche, France

“…This research, along with subsequent thermoluminescent dating of an ash layer higher in the sequence at 72 ka (Sanzelle et al, ), placed the Neanderthal material within the Eemian interglacial. This study describes the morphology of the axial and appendicular remains from Moula‐Guercy but excludes hand and foot bones (for other descriptions see, Hlusko et al, ; Mersey et al, ).…”

Optimizing the analysis of dental enamel microstructure in intact teeth

“…Cracks seem to be particularly frequent in fossil teeth (see figs. in Hlusko et al, ; Lacruz, Ramirez Rozzi, Wood, & Bromage, ; Leece et al, ; Xing et al, ). They will interfere with the path of laterally incident light used for HSBs visualization, causing a decrease in the degree of illumination when light crosses enamel cracks, with consequent loss of image quality.…”

Digital enhancement of dental enamel microstructure images from intact teeth

“…Dental enamel is one of the most abundant and best-preserved tissues in fossil specimens. (Alba, Fortuny, & Moya-Sola, 2010;Hlusko et al, 2013;Leece et al, 2016;Xing et al;. Line and Bergqvist (2005) analyzed the structure of HSBs in enamel of intact mammalian teeth dating of approximately 60 million years.…”