Dentition of the Mugharet El'Aliya Fossil Human Maxilla, Morocco

TL;DR

This study analyzes the teeth of a fossil human maxilla from Morocco to determine its evolutionary relationships, finding it most similar to early and later Homo sapiens.

Contribution

The study provides the first comparative analysis of a permanent upper canine from the Aterian fossil record.

Findings

The Mugharet el'Aliya fossil shows the greatest similarities in tooth morphology with Homo sapiens.

Perikymata counts on the upper canine align with Homo sapiens.

The canine and fourth premolar are unusually large, atypical for Homo sapiens.

Abstract

This study follows up on our recent morphological analysis of the juvenile maxilla from Mugharet el'Aliya, Morocco. Although this specimen shows a reportedly archaic morphology, likely due to its large size, 3D shape analyses indicated affinities with early
Homo sapiens
. Here, we conducted an in‐depth comparative investigation of the associated dentition to further clarify this individual's phylogenetic and taxonomic affinities.

Our analyses were based on three kinds of data: (a) external crown dimensions and non‐metric features, analyzed via summary statistics; (b) CT scan data enabling the study of internal structures (enamel‐dentine junction) via geometric morphometrics; and (c) high‐resolution replicas of the external surface of the upper canine enabling the study of perikymata numbers via probability functions. The comparative samples included Middle Pleistocene (Chibanian) Europeans and Africans, Neanderthals, and early and later
H. sapiens
.

Mugharet el'Aliya showed the greatest similarities in external and internal tooth morphology with early and later
H. sapiens. Perikymata counts cluster the upper canine with
H. sapiens
. However, its canine and fourth premolar are megadont at a level generally atypical for
H. sapiens.

Our analyses of the dentition of the Mugharet el'Aliya individual support our previous findings on the morphological analysis of the maxilla, placing this fossil closest to
H. sapiens
. Our study further strengthens the evidence connecting fossils from the North African Aterian to those from Western Asia, especially Qafzeh. We also provide the first comparative analysis of a permanent upper canine from the Aterian fossil record.

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