THE ROOTS OF TEETH 



265 



sented by all other Lemurs including the Indrisinae which are 

 the nearest relatives of the Aye-aye. In other Lemurs as in the 

 Anthropoids and in most types of Man the pulp chamber is 

 shallow and clearly denned and its outline lies entirely without 

 the alveolar border. Long narrow root canals alone appear 

 in the tooth below the level of the bone surface. In those in- 

 stances of modern Man in which the molar roots are short and 

 exhibit a tendency to fusion we find, as in the Aye-aye a less 

 clearly defined outline for the pulp chamber which is long and 

 extends beneath the alveolar border. Many Neandertal teeth, 

 it is true, exhibit features differing little if at all from those 



Fig. 98.- — Teeth of Jersey Neandertal Man (after Keith and Knowles). Upper 

 row: upper teeth: 1. third molar, 2. first right molar, 3. second left premolar, 4. second 

 left molar, 5. third left molar. Lower row: lower teeth: 1. third right molar (crown), 

 2. second right molar, 3. second right incisor, 4. left canine, 5. first left premolar, 6. 

 second left premolar, 7. second left molar. This is a form of Man with extremely 

 specialized tooth roots. Note the short fused molar roots, the absence of neck and the 

 great attrition of the crown. 



which are characteristic of most modern dentitions but some 

 skulls (Fig. 98) present features of very different type. Not 

 only are the molar roots short and fused into a solid mass but 

 the neck of the tooth is lacking, the crown merging with the 

 stump-like root, and the pulp chamber is large, long, imper- 

 fectly outlined and extends far below the alveolar border. 

 Even the root canals are capacious and form simply loculi of 

 the elongated pulp chamber. This thoroughly distinctive ap- 

 pearance, indications of which are met with in some modern 



