Preliminary data on frequency ratio of archaic markers on permanent and deciduous molars in ancient series from Siberia and Far East

First data on the morphology of deciduous teeth in the Serovo culture of the Neolithic in the Baikal region and Bolshaya Rechka culture of the Early Iron Age in Western Siberia are discussed. The research objective was making a preliminary analysis offrequency ratio for non-metric features of dental system appearing on permanent and deciduous teeth. It was done for testing a hypothesis of greater conservatism of deciduous teeth and longer preservation of archaic elements in their morphology compared to permanent molars. The series were studied according to extended protocol which included both archaic markers and standard features differentiating European and Asian groups. Comparison between groups has shown a stable increase in the frequencies of crista obliqua, anterior and posterior fossa on the upper and lower molars, and mid-trigonid crest (epicristide) on deciduous second molars relative to permanent first teeth. As first approximation, this confirms the hypothesis of greater conservatism of deciduous second molars compared to permanentfirst molars. Analysis of the matrix of nonparametric rank correlations between the groups has shown that absolute values offrequencies of homologous traits in permanent and deciduous teeth in the analyzed set of groups weakly related to each other. For most of them, the correlations did not reach the 95% threshold of statistical significance. The exceptions included epicristide as well as anterior and posterior fovea on the lower deciduous second and permanentfirst molars. A significantly larger amount of data is needed for correctly interpreting variability of these traits.