Secular Dental Changes in the Populations of the Armenian Highland: Evolutionary and Ecological Aspects

Secular Dental Changes in the Populations of the Armenian Highland: Evolutionary and Ecological Aspects

A.Yu. Khudaverdyan.

Based on the comparison of several dental series representing populations which inhabited the Armenian Highland in various periods, from the Early Bronze Age to the present, several diachronic tendencies were revealed. These tendencies were apparently caused by population history and secular trends, the principal one being dental reduction. The traits vary in stability versus lability, correlation with other features, heritability, and the nature of variation (continuous versus discrete). Our data suggests that dental reduction was a tendency shared by all populations of the Armenian Highland.

Keywords: Armenian Highland, dental anthropology, microevolution, secular trends, reduction, population history,
adaptation.