The Occurence of Taurodontism in The Ancient Inhabitants of Anatolia

Year 1949, Volume: 13 Issue: 50, 222 - 228, 20.04.1949

Muzaffer Süleyman Şenyürek

Abstract

About four decades ago it was observed that the teeth of Neanderthal man, though variable, had rather large pulp cavities. As it was assurned that the enlargement of the pulp chambers did not occur in the Anthropoid apes and in modern man, this feature was considered to be a specialization peculiar to Homo primigenius. It was then concluded that on account of this specialization and other considerations Neanderthal man could not represent a stage in the evolution of Homo sapiens, as it was till then assumed. Sir Arthur Keith, the eminent British anthropologist to whom our science owes much, was at first not in favor of this view, but subsequently fully adopted it. Sir Arthur Keith proposed the term cynodontism for the condition of the molars where the pulp chamber was small. He designated the opposite condition where the pulp chambers were enlarged at the expense of the roots and were deeply embedded in the dental alveoli, taurodontism

Keywords

Neanderthal, Homo Sapiens, Anatolia, Anthropology