THE HUMAN DENTITION 149 



is strikingly shallow and in this respect recalls the mandible of 

 the Neandertaler. When the foregoing facts are carefully 

 weighed there is no doubt that Tasmanian Man is a primitive 

 modern race. 



Next let us consider the general dental features of present 

 day Europeans. Again, as in Neandertal Man, we find long 

 aaid short headed varieties. In the latter the limbs of the den- 

 tal arches tend to be more divergent and the arches them- 

 selves shorter in antero-posterior length. We cannot consider 

 further differences here. 



As an example of the modern European dentition* we have 

 chosen a skull (Fig. 53) in which the dental arch is rather 

 long and its limbs not very divergent. In their occlusion the 

 upper incisors only just overlap the small lower teeth and the 

 small size of the upper molars and the marked reduction in 

 the second lower molar result in the practical elimination of 

 alternate occlusion in the molar region. These two features 

 are worth noting. If we refer for a moment to H. aurigna- 

 censis, we shall find that in addition to edge to edge bite of 

 the incisors the molars alternate so that although the majority 

 of the crown of each upper molar occludes with the corre- 

 sponding lower yet nearly one-third of the crown is in occlusion 

 with the lower molar next behind. The same is true of the 

 Tasmanian skull. In Anglo-Saxon times almost the entire 

 population possessed an edge to edge incisor bite. After the 

 lapse of less than a thousand years ninety-five per cent of 



*In order to correlate the zoological cusp terminology used in this hook with the 

 terms commonly used by dentists the following table (Osborn: Evolution of Mammalian 

 Molar Teeth, 1907) is presented: 



Primitive triangle, or trigon. 

 Primitive heel, or talon. 



Upper 



Molars 



Anterior palatal 

 Anterior buccal 

 Posterior buccal 

 Posterior palatal 



Protocone 1 

 Paracone > 

 Metacone J 

 Hypocone 



Aower Molars 



Anterior buccal 

 Anterior lingual 

 Posterior buccal 

 Posterior lingual 

 Posterior mesial 



Protoconid 

 Metaconid 

 Hypoconid 

 Entoconid 

 Hypoconulid 



r Primitive triangle, or trigonid. 



Primitive heel, or talonid. 



