Editing Dentition (section)

==Dentition use in archaeology==
Dentition, or the study of teeth, is an important area of study for archaeologists, especially those specializing in the study of older remains.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Towle|first1=Ian|last2=Irish|first2=Joel D.|last3=Groote|first3=Isabelle De|date=2017|title=Behavioral inferences from the high levels of dental chipping in Homo naledi|journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology|language=en|volume=164|issue=1|pages=184–192|doi=10.1002/ajpa.23250|pmid=28542710|s2cid=24296825 |issn=1096-8644|url=http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/6367/3/Towle%20et%20al%20Homo%20naledi%20chipping%20%282%29.pdf}}</ref><ref name="Weiss&Mann1985p130-135"/><ref name="CambridgeDictHumBiol&EvolArchaeology"/> Dentition affords many advantages over studying the rest of the skeleton itself ([[osteometry]]). The structure and arrangement of teeth is constant and, although it is inherited, does not undergo extensive change during environmental change, dietary specializations, or alterations in use patterns. The rest of the skeleton is much more likely to exhibit change because of adaptation. Teeth also preserve better than bone, and so the sample of teeth available to archaeologists is much more extensive and therefore more representative.

Dentition is particularly useful in tracking ancient populations' movements, because there are differences in the shapes of incisors, the number of grooves on molars, presence/absence of wisdom teeth, and extra cusps on particular teeth. These differences can not only be associated with different populations across space, but also change over time so that the study of the characteristics of teeth could say which population one is dealing with, and at what point in that population's history they are.