Archives of Oral Biology 46 (2001) 1021–1029 A review of taurodontism with new data on indigenous southern African populations D.A. Constant a , F.E. Grine b, * a Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Uniersity of Cape Town, Obseratory, South Africa 7925 b Departments of Anthropology and Anatomical Sciences, State Uniersity of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA Accepted 16 May 2001 Abstract The prevalence and degree of taurodontism (enlargement of the pulp cavity) in the mandibular permanent molars of two recent population samples from southern Africa were investigated quantitatively from lateral radiographs. The degree of occlusal wear was scored and two measures of relative pulp cavity size were recorded for each tooth. There was a significant association between increased attrition and a reduction in the size of the pulp cavity when all of the teeth were considered together, but no correlation among individual molar types within each sample. In both the Zulu (n =68 individuals) and Khoisan (n =28 individuals) samples, third molars had the highest prevalence of taurodon- tism and first molars the lowest. The data for Zulus are similar to those recorded for other modern populations (e.g. white and black Americans, and Israelis), whereas the Khoisan data exhibit significantly higher frequencies. An increased appreciation of the distribution of this variant in modern human populations would contribute to an understanding of its possible evolutionary significance in the human fossil record. © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Taurodontism; South Africa; Zulu; Khoisan; Mandibular molars www.elsevier.com/locate/archoralbio 1. Introduction Continuous as well as discrete dental morphological traits are of particular use in studies of phylogenetic relationships and population affinities. Taurodontism, which is defined as the enlargement of the pulp cavity of a molar tooth at the expense of root length (Keith, 1913), appears to be a continuous trait (Blumberg et al., 1971). Most studies of its prevalence have, how- ever, employed a categorical approach (e.g. Shaw, 1928; Keene, 1966; Shifman and Chanannel, 1978). Extreme enlargement of the pulp cavity in an ancient population was first reported in Neanderthal teeth from the Krapina (Adloff, 1907; Gorjanovic-Kram- berger, 1907, 1908), and Keith (1913) described it as a distinguishing feature of this Middle Palaeolithic human population. Subsequent studies have suggested that whereas taurodontism is present at relatively high frequencies in Neanderthals, it is not ubiquitous (Mena, 1971; Grine and Klein, 1985). The possible evolutionary significance of taurodontism (e.g. whether it should be considered plesiomorphic) in hu- man evolution requires that its expression in a variety of modern populations be ascertained. 2. Review of the literature 2.1. Genetic studies of taurodontism Most studies of taurodontism in recent populations have dealt with aspects of familial inheritance in the * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-631-632-7622; fax: +1- 631-632-9165. E-mail address: fgrine@notes.cc.sunysb.edu (F.E. Grine). 0003-9969/01/$ - see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII:S0003-9969(01)00071-1