摘要
对在盘县大洞发现的一枚人类上颌内侧门齿和一枚人类下颌犬齿的观察研究显示：门齿齿冠舌侧面铲形结构、齿结节、指状突及犬齿的齿带等结构具有某些与北京猿人牙齿相似的特征；
In 1992 and 1993, two field seasons of excavations were undertaken in Panxian Dadong, Guizhou Province of southwest China. Along with about 2 000 pieces of stone artifacts and 40 species of animal fossils, two human teeth (one upper right incisor and one lower left canine) were discovered successively. This paper gives the description and ana lysis of these teeth. 1\ Condition of preservation and estimation of age The incisor only has part of its crown left. Its root is missing from the place near the boundary between crown and root. The remaining part of crown is seriously damaged. The whole enamel layer of the buccal side and some dentine were dropped. This led rugged surface of dentine. The canine is in good condition, with only slight damage on the root tip. According to the tooth wear, the age of the incisor was estimated about 30 years old and the age of the canine is about 25 years old. 2\ Descriptions of the teeth Incisor\ \ The incisor looks quite strong with the shape of trapezoid. Because of the severe damage, the morphological features of the buccal side can not be determined. Both buccal and lingual sides of the crown are thickened obviously, and folded inside . So the lingual side of the crown is shovel shaped. There is a big tuberculum dentale in the lingual side of the crown, which occupies the whole base. Two finger like projections stretch from the tuberculum dentale and end in the cutting edge of the crown. The tuberculum dentale and the finger like projections take up all of the lingual side of the crown. Because of the damage to the incisor, only a few measurements are available. The height of the crown measured on the lingual side is 10 1 mm; mesio distal diameter of the crown is 9 3 mm. If the damage on the two sides and the severe wear of the crown are taken into consideration, the actual values of the two measurements should be a little bit bigger than those mentioned above. According to these descriptions, the main features of the incisor are as follow: a.Big and strong crown. b.Lingual side is shovel shaped. c.There are a well developed tuberculum dentale and two finger like projections, which occupy all of the lingual side of the crown and go down till the cutting ridge. Canine\ \ The canine looks short and strong. When viewed laterally, the crown takes the trapezoid shape and its cutting ridge is sharp. The buccal side of the crown is projecting with vertical rib like stripes. In the base area there is a cingulum caused by enamel projection. There are vertical and shallow grooves separating the cingulum and buccal side. The lingual side of the crown is hollow with a vertical ridge from the base stretching to the cutting tubercle. Tuberculum dentale is not very obvious. The length of the crown is 7 9 mm; the width of the crown is 8 3 mm; the height of the crown is 10 4 mm. The root of the canine looks stout. Bucco lingual diameter is longer than mesio distal diameter. The maximum width is in the middle two thirds of the root. There is some contraction between crown and root. There are vertical and shallow grooves on mesial and distal sides respectively. The root gradually becomes dull toward the tip of it. The length of the root is 6 2 mm, the width, 8 2 mm, the height, 14 3 mm. 3 Discussion The morphological observations made on the two human teeth discovered in Panxian Dadong show that some traits, including shoveling, tuberculum dentale, finger like projections on the incisor and cingulum on the canine, are similar to those of Homo erectus at Zhoukoudian, Beijing. However, the complexity and expression of these traits do not reach the level of those of Peking Man. For example, the incisors of Homo erectus at both Zhoukoudian and Yuanmou have several finger like projections. But the incisor of Dadong only has two. As to the metric traits, although the value of mesio distal diameter falls in the range of Peking Man, this value is less than the average value of Homo erectus at Yuanmou, Yuanxian and Zhoukoudian. The metric and non metr
出处
《人类学学报》
CSCD
北大核心
1997年第3期193-200,共8页
Acta Anthropologica Sinica
关键词
牙齿
盘县大洞
化石
体质人类学
Tooth, Homo erectus, Homo sapiense, Panxian Dadong
