ArticlePloS one2015
Dental ontogeny in pliocene and early pleistocene hominins.
Article in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 112 citations in OpenAlex.
- Synchrotron imaging reveals diversity in archosauromorph growth strategies by the end of the early Triassic.iScience · 2026Article
- Reading hominin life history in fossil bones and teeth: methods to test hypotheses regarding its evolution.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- Article
- Geochemical chronologies in Paranthropus robustus teeth inform habitat and life histories.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- Infant craniofacial diversity in Early Pleistocene Homo.Nature communications · 2025Article
- The Homo erectus Female Revisited.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2025Article
- Article
- Article
- Hominin fossils from Kromdraai and Drimolen informScience advances · 2023Article
- High-energy synchrotron-radiation-based X-ray micro-tomography enables non-destructive and micro-scale palaeohistological assessment of macro-scale fossil dinosaur bones.Journal of synchrotron radiation · 2023Article
- Synchrotron X-ray Studies of the Structural and Functional Hierarchies in Mineralised Human Dental Enamel: A State-of-the-Art Review.Dentistry journal · 2023Review
- Synchrotron radiation-based phase-contrast microtomography of human dental calculus allows nondestructive analysis of inclusions: implications for archeological samples.Journal of medical imaging (Bellingham, Wash.) · 2022Article
- Virtual histology of archaeological human deciduous prenatal enamel through synchrotron X-ray computed microtomography images.Journal of synchrotron radiation · 2022Article
- Insights into the palaeobiology of an early Homo infant: multidisciplinary investigation of the GAR IVE hemi-mandible, Melka Kunture, Ethiopia.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Molar biomechanical function in South African homininsInterface focus · 2021Article
- A chimpanzee enamel-diet δJournal of human evolution · 2021Article
- Growth and development of the third permanent molar in Paranthropus robustus from Swartkrans, South Africa.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Article
- Immature remains and the first partial skeleton of a juvenile Homo naledi, a late Middle Pleistocene hominin from South Africa.PloS one · 2020Article
- Calcium isotopic patterns in enamel reflect different nursing behaviors among South African early hominins.Science advances · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 9 institutions in 7 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Until recently, our understanding of the evolution of human growth and development derived from studies of fossil juveniles that employed extant populations for both age determination and comparison. This circular approach has led to considerable debate about the human-like and ape-like affinities of fossil hominins. Teeth are invaluable for understanding maturation as age at death can be directly assessed from dental microstructure, and dental development has been shown to correlate with life history across primates broadly. We employ non-destructive synchrotron imaging to characterize incremental development, molar emergence, and age at death in more than 20 Australopithecus anamensis, Australopithecus africanus, Paranthropus robustus and South African early Homo juveniles. Long-period line periodicities range from at least 6-12 days (possibly 5-13 days), and do not support the hypothesis that australopiths have lower mean values than extant or fossil Homo. Crown formation times of australopith and early Homo postcanine teeth fall below or at the low end of extant human values; Paranthropus robustus dentitions have the shortest formation times. Pliocene and early Pleistocene hominins show remarkable variation, and previous reports of age at death that employ a narrow range of estimated long-period line periodicities, cuspal enamel thicknesses, or initiation ages are likely to be in error. New chronological ages for SK 62 and StW 151 are several months younger than previous histological estimates, while Sts 24 is more than one year older. Extant human standards overestimate age at death in hominins predating Homo sapiens, and should not be applied to other fossil taxa. We urge caution when inferring life history as aspects of dental development in Pliocene and early Pleistocene fossils are distinct from modern humans and African apes, and recent work has challenged the predictive power of primate-wide associations between hominoid first molar emergence and certain life history variables.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.