Molar crown height: not always a reliable method for the evaluation of age-at-death |
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Authors: | Stefano Benazzi Costanza Bonetti Elisabetta Cilli Giorgio Gruppioni |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Palaeoanthropology and Messel Research, Senckenberg Research Institute, Senckenberganlage 25, D-60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany;2. Department of History and Method for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna, Italy |
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Abstract: | In this study, we tested the validity of molar crown height, which changes according to the degree of tooth wear, for the evaluation of age-at-death. The sample consisted of 372 first and second molars (lower and upper) from 157 individuals of known sex and age-at-death. For each molar, we measured the height of the two cusps most subjected to wear (protocone and hypocone for the upper M1 and M2; protoconid and hypoconid for the lower M1 and M2). The correlation between crown height and age-at-death was assessed by linear regression analysis. The resulting models were not very robust since a significant correlation was only found for a small part of the sample, at best (maxillary M1) around 35%. The result slightly improved when bucco-lingual diameter (BL diameter), ante-mortem tooth loss and dental caries were considered, mainly for the maxillary M2 for which the model using age-at-death and BL diameter as independent variables explained 47% of the sample (p < 0.001). |
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Keywords: | Age-at-death Molar crown height Dental wear Human skeletal remains Dental caries Ante-mortem tooth loss |
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