Australian Tooth-Size Clines and the Death of a Stereotype [and Comments and Reply]

Abstract

Tooth size in Australia ran from a minimum in the Cape York Peninsula of northern Queensland to a maximum in the Murray Basin. The available data suggest that the earliest Australians possessed large jaws and teeth and that subsequently genes for smaller tooth size entered Australia from the northeast corner a model which is consistent with the evidence for the spread of a variety of cultural and technological items. While the evidence is tentative at best, it is consistent with the view that more developed food-preparation techniques had ocurred outside of Australia, allowing dental reduction to occur. The spread of these elements into Australia may be symbolized by the influx of the small-tool tradition early in the Holocene, and it may have been made possible by associated resource-utilization techniques that promote survival in areas previously sparsely utilized, such as the central desert and the coastal margins. This would account for the tooth-size gradient visible down the east coast and from Cape York to the western desert. The largest teeth in Australia survived in just those areas most favorable to human habitation where one would expect the genetic contribution of the earliest inhabitants to be most prominently represented. Tasmanian affinities are clearly with southeastern Australia. After initial occupation, Australia was subject to a continuous trickle of cultural-biological influence from the north rather than having been the receptacle for specific waves, migrations, or invasions.