Biological Relationships among Southeast Asians, Jomonese, and the Pacific Populations as Viewed from Dental Characters: The Basic Populations in East Asia, X

Abstract

Morphological patterns of similarity and difference derived from an assessment of metric and non-metric dental characters in a series of Jomonese and their lineage in Japan, Southeast Asians, Micronesians, and Polynesians were presented. Despite the marked difference of phenotypic features, the dentitions of Negritos, Dajaks, and Filipinos show close resemblance to each other. The original dental traits of Southeast Asians may have occurred by the result of convergent microevolution under the similar environmental condition such as tropical rain-forest. Diachronic comparison of Southeast Asian dental samples supports the local evolution hypothesis for modern Southeast Asian dental characters. Dental traits of Micronesians and Polynesians are more like those of Southeast Asians than those of Jomonese and their lineage. The present findings do not favor the Neolithic Jomonese as the most likely source for the present people in Micronesia and Polynesia. Jomonese may be linked with the Pacific populations through the common gene pool derived from somewhere in Southeast Asia.