152 



MAMMALIAN DENTITION 



ized form, considerably more specialized indeed than the Euro- 

 pean. The Bushmen and the Pygmies of the Congo forests are 

 more primitive and specialized than other Negro races. In this 

 account we shall examine simply the dentition of the American 

 Negro although he is not typical of the true African race 

 since the changes which we have already noted as occurring in 

 quite recent times in Europeans are to be found in him also. 

 The skull of which Fig. 54 is a photograph is unusually 



Fig. 54. — Occlusal view of dentition of American Negro (Skull 524, W.R.U.). 

 In some respects a very specialized dentition modified in recent centuries by civilization. 



broad and therefore the length of the dental arch is some- 

 what obscured by the divergence of the molar series. The 

 general setting of the teeth in the jaws is very similar to that 

 of the European except that there is greater spacing of the 

 teeth of the upper jaw. The overlapping of the upper incisors 

 and the occlusion of one maxillary molar solely with the cor- 

 responding tooth of the mandible occur here as in many Euro- 

 peans. In the typical African Negro, however, the edge to 

 edge bite of the incisors and the incompletely alternate occlu- 



