Caries frequencies in South African fossil hominins were observed and compared with other hominin samples. Species studied include Paranthropus robustus, Homo naledi, Australopithecus africanus, early Homo and A. sediba. Teeth were viewed macroscopically with Micro-CT scans used to confirm lesions. Position and severity of each lesion were also noted and described. For all South African fossil hominin specimens studied, 16 have carious lesions, six of which are described for the first time in this study. These are from a minimum of six individuals, and include four P. robustus, one H. naledi, and one early Homo individual. No carious lesions were found on deciduous teeth, or any teeth assigned to A. africanus. Most are located interproximal, and only posterior teeth are affected. Caries frequency typically ranges between 1-5% of teeth in non-agricultural human samples, and this pattern seemingly holds true for at least the past two million years in the hominin lineage. Non-agricultural populations significantly above or below this threshold generally have a specialized diet, supporting other dietary evidence that A. africanus likely consumed large amounts of tough, non-cariogenic vegetation. Given the common occurrence of caries in the other hominin species, cariogenic bacteria and foods were evidently common in their collective oral environment. Along with recent research highlighting additional examples of caries in H. neanderthalensis, early Homo and Pleistocene H. sapiens, caries is clearly an ancient disease that was much more common than once maintained throughout the course of human evolution.

中文翻译：

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人类进化中的龋齿：南非化石人类素中龋齿的发生频率

观察到南非化石人参素中的龋齿频率并将其与其他人参素样品进行比较。研究的物种包括傍人粗壮，纳莱蒂人，非洲南方古猿，早期智人和A. sediba。使用Micro-CT扫描肉眼观察牙齿，以确认病变。还记录并描述了每个病变的位置和严重性。对于所研究的所有南非化石人均化石标本，有16个有龋齿病变，其中有6个是首次描述。这些至少来自六个人，其中包括四个罗汉果假单胞菌，一个纳尔迪氏菌和一个早代人。个人。在乳牙或分配给非洲曲霉的任何牙齿上均未发现龋齿病变。大多数位于牙间，仅后牙受到影响。在非农业人类样本中，龋齿频率通常在牙齿的1-5％之间，并且这种模式似乎至少在过去200万年的人源血统中仍然适用。大大高于或低于此阈值的非农业人群通常采用专门的饮食，以支持其他饮食证据，即非洲非洲按蚊可能会消耗大量坚硬的非致龋性植被。鉴于在其他人类素中常见龋齿，致龋细菌和食物显然在其集体口腔环境中很常见。除了最近的研究重点突出了尼安德特人山毛虫，早期人类和更新世的智人龋齿的其他例子外，龋齿显然是一种古老的疾病，比人类在整个进化过程中所维持的疾病更为普遍。