Anomalous double-crowned primary teeth from Pre-Columbian Tennessee: A meta-analysis of hunter–gatherer and agriculturalist samples

Few cases of double-crowned deciduous teeth are reported in the paleopathological literature. Therefore, temporal and spatial patterns as well as research utility of this presumptive epigenetic trait are unknown. A ten site subadult sample (N = 245) from Pre-Columbian Tennessee is canvassed for primary double teeth. No twinned (geminated) teeth but nine cases of fused adjacent deciduous teeth are identified. Consistent with clinical and population prevalence, all cases display mandibular fusions with one individual additionally exhibiting fusion of the maxillary central incisors. The frequency of bilaterality and which teeth fuse (i.e., Ldi1 + Rdi1, di1 + di2, di2 + dc1) in this archaeological sample differs from world-wide clinical and population based studies. The uniqueness of the Amerindian pattern needs to be affirmed.The case prevalence of a Late Archaic Period (2500–1000 bc) hunter–gatherer subsistence sample (4/44, 9.1%) and a late prehistoric (ad 1300–1550) intensive agriculturalist sample (5/201, 2.5%) is not quite statistically significant (p = 0.0576). Prevalence also does not unequivocally co-associate with subadult morbidity. However, dental fusion may link to the health of the reproductive age female. Future assessment should explore this and other avenues of community health as well as the genetic basis of tooth fusion by assessing the cranial and dental discrete traits in this Tennessee sample.

► Ten Pre-Columbian sites (N = 245) were examined for double-crowned deciduous teeth.
► Five sites were hunter–gatherers (N = 44) and five were agriculturalist (N = 201).
► Prevalence in the hunter–gatherers was higher (9.1% vs 2.5%) (p = 0.0576).
► Pairs fused and bilaterality differ from population and clinical expectations.
► Subsistence difference may reflect endogamy or unknown prenatal/neonatal stress.