Additional Evidence for Morpho-Dimensional Tooth Crown Variation in a New Indonesian H. erectus Sample from the Sangiran Dome (Central Java)

A new analysis of fifteen previously unreported or briefly described human fossil teeth from the Sangiran Dome, Central Java, reveals significant morpho-dimensional variation and time-related structural reduction in Javanese Homo erectus. The sample, primarily composed of permanent molars with one incisor and one premolar, shows a marked decrease in mesiodistal diameter, frequent loss or reduction of the lower molar distal cusp (hypoconulid), and more square occlusal outlines. Additionally, it exhibits a low frequency of the Y-groove pattern, dominated instead by X and + patterns—a rare combination in Lower to early Middle Pleistocene paleoanthropological records but observed in Chinese H. erectus and H. heidelbergensis. This suggests complex intermittent exchanges between continental and insular Southeast Asia during the Pleistocene.

Zanolli, C. (2013). Additional Evidence for Morpho-Dimensional Tooth Crown Variation in a New Indonesian H. erectus Sample from the Sangiran Dome (Central Java). PLoS ONE, 8(7), e67233. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0067233