Longstanding dental pathology in Neandertals from El Sidrón (Asturias, Spain) with a probable familial basis

[EN] Two Neandertal specimens from El Sidrón, northern Spain, show evidence of retained left mandibular deciduous canines. These individuals share the same mitochondrial (mtDNA) haplotype, indicating they are maternally related and suggesting a potential heritable basis for these dental anomalies. R...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Authors: Dean, M. Christopher, Rosas González, Antonio 1960-, Estalrrich Albo, Almudena, García Tabernero, Antonio, Huguet i Pàmies, Rosa, Lalueza Fox, Carles 1965-, Bastir, Markus, Rasilla Vives, Marco de la
Format: article
Status:Versión aceptada para publicación
Publication Date:2013
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de León
Repository:BULERIA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de León
OAI Identifier:oai:buleria.unileon.es:10612/26638
Online Access:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248413000912
https://hdl.handle.net/10612/26638
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Anatomía
Antropología física
Paleontología
Deciduous canine
Dentigerous cyst
Canine impaction
Homo neanderthalensis
Western Europe
Pleistocene
2402 Antropología (Física)
2402.99 Otras (Evolución Humana)
2410.02 Anatomía Humana
2416.99 Otras (Paleontología Humana)
Description
Summary:[EN] Two Neandertal specimens from El Sidrón, northern Spain, show evidence of retained left mandibular deciduous canines. These individuals share the same mitochondrial (mtDNA) haplotype, indicating they are maternally related and suggesting a potential heritable basis for these dental anomalies. Radiographs and medical CT scans provide evidence of further, more extensive dental pathology in one of these specimens. An anomalous deciduous canine crown morphology that developed before birth subsequently suffered a fracture of the crown exposing the pulp sometime after eruption into functional occlusion. This led to death of the tooth, periapical granuloma formation and arrested deciduous canine root growth at an estimated age of 2.5 years. At some point the underlying permanent canine tooth became horizontally displaced and came to lie low in the trabecular bone of the mandibular corpus. A dentigerous cyst then developed around the crown. Anterior growth displacement of the mandible continued around the stationary permanent canine, leaving it posteriorly positioned in the mandibular corpus by the end of the growth period beneath the third permanent molar roots, which, in turn, suggests a largely horizontal growth vector. Subsequent longstanding repeated infections of the expanding cyst cavity are evidenced by bouts of bone deposition and resorption of the boundary walls of the cyst cavity. This resulted in the establishment of two permanent bony drainage sinuses, one through the buccal plate of the alveolar bone anteriorly, immediately beneath the infected deciduous canine root, and the other through the buccal plate anterior to the mesial root of the first permanent molar. It is probable that this complicated temporal sequence of dental pathologies had an initial heritable trigger that progressed in an unusually complex way in one of these individuals. During life, this individual may have been largely unaware of this ongoing pathology