| Summary: | Prehistoric American Southwest exhibits a high frequency of dental morphological variability. This high variability may be the result of gene flow and subsequent genetic drift occurring in early periods (pre CE 900), though few studies report on dental variability in later periods. Morphological traits of the maxillary lateral incisors were analyzed from the Pueblo IV site of Paa-ko, New Mexico (CE 1300-1425) yielding high frequencies of four traits (shovel, double shovel, tuberculum dentale, interruption groove) and uncommon variants (barrel-shovel, triform, peg-shaped). Lateral incisor morphology is underrepresented in the literature but could be useful in determining population migration and affinity.
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