摘要：Dental paleoanthropology involves the study of the development, variation, and evolution of modern and fossil primate dentitions. The extensive hominin dental fossil record not only provides dental paleoanthropologists with the possibility to analyze human evolutionary morphology, ontogeny, and paleodiets, but also allows them to assess intra and inter-population variability and sexual dimorphism. Recently this sub-discipline has greatly benefited from major methodological and technological advances which paved the way to new research directions. These include the utilization of state-of-the-art equipment such as micro-computer tomopgraphy (mCT), new digital 3-D microscopy, and various other high-resolution digital imaging methods. These allow researchers to quantitatively analyze microscopic variations in dental topography, structure, and ontogeny.
