Morphological and metrical comparison of San and Central Sotho dentitions from southern Africa

Comparative morphological and metrical study of San and Central Sotho dentitions indicates that the teeth of the two samples are significantly different from one another. The San dental complex contains traits that add mass to the occlusal surface of microdontic dentitions: moderate low-grade UI1 (13.5%) and UI2 shoveling (24.7%), high Bushman canine (43.1%), fairly low UM2 hypocone reduction (23.3%), high UM2 cusp 5 (55.6%), high LM1 cusp 7 (35.2%), LM1 distal trigonid crest (7.1%), and LM2 deflecting wrinkle (5.3%), lack of reduction of LM1 and LM2 cusp number, in the presence of very low UM1 Carabelli's trait (6.7%) and high LM2 Y-groove (86.3%). Culturally, males occasionally exhibit filed UI1 and females are missing LI1. Conversely, mesodontic Central Sotho dentitions display a more simplified morphology, with the exception of moderately high incidence of UM1 Carabelli's trait (41.0%) and very high LM1 cusp 7 (71.3%). Discriminant analysis of mesiodistal and buccolingual diameters and tooth crown surface area data for the left maxillary teeth supports classification of San dentitions as microdont and Central Sotho dentitions as mesodont. Additionally, metrical analysis indicates that San teeth are more sexually dimorphic than are those of Central Sotho.