Book Reviews

HUMAN ORIGINS: THE FOSSIL RECORD, 3rd ed.By Clark Spencer Larsen, Robert H. Mat-ter, and Daniel L. Gebo. Prospect Heights,IL: Waveland Press. 1998. 225 pp. ISBN1-57766-002-1. $18.95 (paper).

The new edition of Human Origins: TheFossil Record by Clark Larsen, Robert Mat-ter, and Daniel Gebo is a welcome revision toan already extremely useful reference work.To this work, the authors have added morehistorical information, more fossils, and up-dated taxonomies to keep the reader abreastof the continuing changes and advances inthe field of palaeoanthropology.

The authors very clearly state their goalsin the preface, designing this book forundergraduate students who are ‘‘grap-pling with—usually for the first time—anincreasingly complex fossil record’’ (p. xi). Assuch, the authors are aware of the book’slimitations. They note that other guides areavailable that afford more comprehensivecoverage of the human fossil record, oftenwith much more detail than is needed for astudent taking an introductory course inhuman origins. Instead, the authors suggestthat this book can best be used as a supple-mentary text in such a class.

The book is divided into eight chapters,seven of which are equivalent to a chronologi-cal sequence. The first chapter, the introduc-tion, serves as a primer of palaeoecology,fossilization, and human and nonhumanprimate comparative osteology. This lastpart sets the stage for an understanding ofchanges in human morphology and how theearliest human forms differ from living pri-mates. The osteology section is particularlyuseful. Following this are the chapters deal-ing with the fossil material. With each sec-tion, an introduction to the stage of hominidevolution being discussed is presented, aswell as a listing of the specimens described

and corresponding maps showing each fos-sil’s location.

The fossil chapters begin with ‘‘The DawnApes,’’ i.e., Oligocene and Miocene homi-noids, and end with ‘‘Modern Homo sapiens.’’In these chapters, the book’s strengths cometo the fore. Every section is replete withdetailed drawings of the hominids described.Each fossil is listed with its specimen num-ber, geographic location, taxonomic affilia-tion, and approximate date. The authorsalso provide a ‘‘general description,’’ whichincludes information on the history of thediscovery, the fossil’s important morphologi-cal aspects, and the rationale for its taxo-nomic placement. While each description isnot excessively complex, thorough citationlists are provided at the bottom of eachentry, allowing the more enterprising stu-dent to gain additional information aboutthe fossil in question. Each section beginswith African fossils, and works its way toEurope and then the Far East. The onlyexceptions to this are the Australopithecuschapter and the chapter on modern Homosapiens, in which the Skhul/Qafzeh hominidsare described first, followed by the Africanmaterial. For each section, in which a fossilis deemed important to the sequence, morethan one view is presented.

As is the authors’ intent, most phases ofhominid evolution are well-represented. Asone progresses through the sequence, how-ever, there are a few surprises. The authorslist KNM ER 1805 in the ‘‘Australopithecus’’section rather than the ‘‘Homo habilis’’ sec-tion, arguing that its morphology moreclosely approximates australopithecines. TheBodo fossil has been moved from the ‘‘Ar-chaic Homo sapiens’’ section to the ‘‘Homoerectus’’ section from the previous edition.This is, perhaps, reflective of the uncer-tainty of its taxonomic designation. For thisedition, many crania have been added: theAS95-500 specimen from Turkey, the Ber I,’91 mandible from Namibia, AL-444 fromHadar, Narmada from India, the Atapuerca

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 109:275–279 (1999)

r 1999 WILEY-LISS, INC.

5 hominid from the Sima de Los Huesos sitein Spain, and the Browns Valley craniumfrom Minnesota.

The bulk of the book flows smoothly, andthere is a great wealth of information that iscovered in both visual and written format.While this is not a substantial revision of thesecond edition, the authors have done a goodjob of keeping the reader up to date. Theinformation presented is succinct withoutbeing overwhelming, and Larsen et al.largely accomplished what they set out todo. I would add only a few suggestions.

Although the authors state that it is theirintention to instruct the student in thephases of human evolution, there is analmost scrupulous absence of phylogeneticinformation regarding these fossils through-out this volume. As an added bonus forstudents, a section on how the differentstages of hominid evolution are thought tofit together would be much appreciated in afuture edition.

Additionally, while the authors’ stated pur-pose is to include only the most completespecimens available, there is a danger indoing so. Very often, morphological variabil-ity in sites with multiple specimens is glossedover. This is especially true for theSkhul crania, where the three most com-plete crania, Skhul IV, V, and IX, are ex-

tremely diverse morphometrically. More in-formation about the skeletal variability atsites with multiple hominid remains wouldbe helpful.

A third quibble is that because there is nopartition between the Upper Pleistocene andHolocene modern Homo sapiens, there is adisruption in the flow of the chronologicalnarrative. On occasion, specimens that areintegral to the emergence of anatomicallymodern humans are grouped with speci-mens that are more recent in time (e.g.,Jebel Qafzeh 6 and Lo. 4b) and which repre-sent a very different part of the evolutionarypicture. It might be more useful to subdividemodern Homo sapiens into an early and lategroup, as is done with archaic Homo sapiens.

These items aside, this is a very worth-while addition to any library on humanevolution and would, as the authors hope,serve as a good supplementary text. Theauthors have accomplished many of thegoals they stated in the preface and haveprovided an enlightening, instructive bookthat yields much valuable reference informa-tion.

JAMES H. KIDDER

Department of AnthropologyUniversity of TennesseeKnoxville, Tennessee

HUMAN DENTAL DEVELOPMENT, MORPHOL-OGY, AND PATHOLOGY—A TRIBUTE TO AL-BERT A. DAHLBERG. Edited by John R.Lukacs. 1998. Eugene: University of Or-egon Anthropological Papers (Number 54).447 pp. ISBN 0-87114-060-8. $39.95 (pa-per).

From Yanomamo oral health and the ef-fects of tobacco smoke on prenatal dentalasymmetry to the dental morphology ofBronze Age Bactrians and the forensic impli-cations of Carabelli’s trait, this volume illus-trates the variety and depth reflective ofAlbert A. Dahlberg’s career. The foundationfor this volume originated at a special sympo-

sium of scholars at the 1995 American Asso-ciation of Physical Anthropology meetings inOakland, California, where the Albert A.Dahlberg Memorial Symposium on DentalMorphology and Evolution was cosponsoredby the Dental Anthropology Association. Thecontents of this monograph closely parallelthe symposium and graciously display, ac-cording to Lukacs’ preface, ‘‘. . . a direct mea-sure of Al Dahlberg’s contributions and themagnitude of his influence on this field ofresearch.’’These contributors, many of whomcollaborated with Dahlberg, represent manyof today’s international leaders in dentalresearch. Their perspectives include newinitiatives and continuations of long-estab-

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lished research projects that are as muchabout dental biology from the epidemio-logical and clinical setting as they are trueto the traditional tenets of dental anthropol-ogy. Twenty chapters are arranged in fivesections that exemplified Dahlberg’s inter-ests: dental development and genetics(three chapters), morphological variations(eight chapters), odontometric variation(five chapters), dental pathology andattrition (three chapters), and a concludingpaper on the history of dental anthro-pology.

Robert Corruccini, Simon Hillson, andJohn Mayhall are names long synonymouswith exploring quantitative and qualitativeapproaches to the epithelial-mesenchymalnuances underlying coronal morphologicalvariation. Eschewing the ‘‘New Morphomet-rics’’ (Dean, 1994), Corruccini brings phylo-genetic concerns due attention to Dahlberg’searly interests in dental ontogeny of pri-mate mandibular molars. Fueling the pale-ontological interest in perikymata, Hillsonexamines the relationship between crowndiameters, crown development, and environ-mental factors by exploring four main theo-ries of how environmental factors may dis-rupt amelogenesis and affect surface contour.Based on their long-term Finnish studies ofthe effects of sex chromosomes on maxillaryfirst molar cusps, Mayhall, Alvesalo, andTownsend three-dimensionally assess theeffects of an additional sex chromosome(47,XYY), using fringes (contours) from moirecontourographic techniques in measures ofcuspal area, volume, shape, and linear di-mensions.

Reflecting Dahlberg’s main interest inteeth (the traditional emphasis in dentalanthropology), coupled with the editor’s ownresearch domain, studies in morphologicalvariation quite naturally comprise the bulkof this volume. These contributions repre-sent a who’s-who in studies of prehistoricand historic dental coronal variation. Theworks in this section include not only rou-tine metric and nonmetric characteristics,but also studies of root and accessory rootstructures and even forensic considerations.

Even though the precise mechanism of

inheritance is poorly understood, the micro-evolutionary implications derived from met-ric and nonmetric studies of dental morpho-logical variation have proven the mostintriguing and fruitful area of research indental anthropology. From Dahlberg’s spe-cific collaborations with Christy Turner, JohnLukacs, and Richard Scott and those influ-ences upon Brian Hemphill, Joel Irish, AnneHaeussler, and Guy Tasa and their students,quantitative approaches to morphologicalvariation and population history are mostpopular.

Perhaps nowhere in dental anthropologyis Dahlberg’s influence more visible thanin the research designs forged through hisassociation with the development of dentalanthropology at Arizona State University.Lukacs, Hemphill, and S.R. Walimbe exam-ined 17 traits among three contemporaryIndian groups to ascertain if the low-casteMahars are indigenous inhabitants ofMaharashtra. Lukacs’ long-term ‘‘dentalmorphology as population history’’ in SouthAsia is undoubtedly one of the most sterlingexamples of this most traditional realmof dental anthropology. Hemphill, alongwith A.F. Christensen and S.I. Mustafaku-lov, assess the biological adaptations andaffinities from Bronze Age Bactria com-pared to Indus Valley samples, while Haeus-sler’s prehistoric Russian research pin-points the origins and relationships ofpeoples from large Ukrainian MesolithicEra cemeteries. Irish’s Nubian research usesdental morphology to assess population con-tinuity and discontinuity among paleolithicNubians.

Using metric and nonmetric dental varia-tions among major human populations,Hanihara attempts to sketch the origin ofmodern humans from the emergence of vari-ous extant dental patterns. He supports asingle-origin hypothesis from sub-SaharanAfricans, noting that they have fewer de-rived features than any other group. Alex-andersen and Carlsen provide a detaileddescriptive morphological survey of theirresearch on the ‘‘quasi-continuous’’ develop-ment of entomolar and paramolar supernu-merary roots in mandibular molars from a

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large extracted sample of Danish and com-parative Greenlandic Inuit. Tasa illustrateshow some related traits in mandibular thirdmolars can be applied to hypothesize peo-pling of the New World and Oregon duringprehistory. Turner and Hawkey, in an assess-ment of 29,000 individuals from 15 ‘‘geoge-netic’’ regions, sternly warn us about ourtraditional reliance on Carabelli’s trait inforensic odontological as an indicator of Eu-ropean ancestry.

Ed Harris, Julius Kieser and HennieGroeneveld, Yuji Mizoguchi, Donald Morris,and Grant Townsend and Victoria Farmerprovide research on the sister disciplines ofodontometric variation and dental asymme-try in various populations. Using a principalcomponent analysis, Harris examines thepatterning of covariation in the developmen-tal and intraspecific odontometric relation-ships of human tooth size. In an interestingdeparture, Kieser and Groeneveld look atdevelopmental aspects of fluctuating dentalasymmetry, following prenatal exposures totobacco smoke. Mizoguchi uses principalcomponent analysis to isolate the ‘‘concretefactors’’ affecting the morphogenesis of de-ciduous teeth, and thus to examine their sizeand covariation-variation. Townsend andFarmer explore asymmetry in the deciduousdentition of South Australian children, us-ing Euclidean distance measures to assessboth fluctuating and directional asymmetryin relation to sex, birth weight, and toothclass. Finally, Morris shows that his methodof occlusal polygon measurements systemati-cally captures angular and linear variationbetween antimeres.

One of the most interesting contributionsin the book is Walker, Sugiyama, andChacon’s oral epidemiological/ethnobioar-chaeological study of diet, dental health, andculture change among recently contactedSouth American Indian hunter/horticultur-ists. The role and perspectives of the dentalanthropologist in a multidisciplinary teamapproaching the dietary and cultural prob-lems of a threatened people reveal a medicalanthropological contribution, besides forc-ing some reevaluations of our bioarchaeologi-

cal accounts. Cucina and Iscan successfullyillustrate the interpretive value that teethprovide in bioarchaeological interpretationsof adaptation from oral pathological data ofArchaic Florida Indians. In an examinationof teeth from prehistoric St. Thomas, U.S.Virgin Islands, Larsen, Teaford, and Sand-ford provide one of the best comparativeframeworks for examining the worldwideincidence of extramasticatory tool use inanterior teeth for plant processing. Theirexquisite electron micrographs reveal a morevaried pattern of manioc horticultural pro-cessing than previously considered. Brown’shistorical account on a century of dentalanthropology in South Australia at AdelaideUniversity highlights, among other things,the longitudinal study of morphology, occlu-sion, and craniofacial growth among Aborigi-nes in Central Australia on the YuendumuReserve. While still reanalyzing much of hisoriginal data, Brown also describes a shift inemphasis from an Aboriginal focus to othergroups. He and others are currently concen-trating on twin studies, chromosomal anoma-lies, and craniofacial imaging for surgicalevaluations.

This volume clearly illustrates the pulseof current dental anthropological researchfrom the traditional to the applied and clini-cal in a reference-rich, affordable edition.Reflecting upon the international develop-ment of dental anthropology in this centuryand the contributions of Albert Dahlberg, ina most unique and impressive manner,Lukacs’ volume captures the broad globalinfluence on so many areas of dental re-search today. Undoubtedly, as expressed byRichard Scott in his dedication of the volumeto Albert A. Dahlberg, ‘‘His 85 years werewell spent.’’

MURRAY K. MARKS

Department of AnthropologyUniversity of TennesseeKnoxville, Tennessee

LITERATURE CITED

Dean D. (1994) Morphometrics and Michaelangelo. JHum Evol 27:457–460.

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BOOKS RECEIVED

Cockburn A, Cockburn E, and Reyman TA(eds.) (1998) Mummies, Disease and An-cient Cultures, 2nd ed. New York: Cam-bridge University Press. 402 pp. $29.95(paper).

Futuyma DJ (1998) Evolutionary Biology.Sunderland, MA: Sinauer. 763 pp. $69.95(cloth).

Hartl DL, and Clark AG (1997) Principles of

Population Genetics, 3rd ed. Sunderland,MA: Sinauer. 542 pp. $56.95 (cloth).

Madrigal L (1998) Statistics for Anthropol-ogy. New York: Cambridge UniversityPress. 238 pp. $24.95 (paper).

Martin DL, and Frayer DW (eds.) (1997)Troubled Times: Violence and Warfare inthe Past. Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach.376 pp. $29.00 (paper).

Swindler DR (1998) Introduction to the Pri-mates. Seattle: University of Washington.284 pp. $22.00 (paper).

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