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Development is a complex phenomenon where the forming phenotype interactswith genetic and environmental inputs. Teeth are an important model fordevelopmental studies and their development has been thoroughly investigated.However, despite of a large literature on the genetics of dental development,no studies have focused yet on the environmental influences on dentalmorphology. Here, we aim to test whether and to what extent the environmentplays a role in producing morphological variation in human teeth. We selected asample of modern human skulls and we used dental enamel hypoplasia as anenvironmental stress marker in order to identify two groups with differentstress level, referred to as SG ("stressed" group) and NSG ("non-stressed"group). We collected data on the occurrence and the relative development of 15morphological traits (5 for each molar) on upper molars using a standardmethodology commonly used in dental anthropology (ASU-DAS system) and then wecompared the frequencies of the traits in the two groups. Overall, the resultssuggest that: (i) stressors like malnutrition and/or systemic diseases have asignificant effect on upper molar morphology; (ii) stress generates adevelopmental response which increases the morphological variability of the SG;(iii) the increase of variability is directional, since individuals belongingto the SG have increased cusps dimensions and number. These results areconsistent with the expectations of the morphodynamic model of dentaldevelopment (Jernvall, 1995).

Environmental Influence on Dental Morphology