Abstract
Mesiodistal and buccolingual tooth crown diameters were measured on the dental casts collected from four different populations in Japan and one from Taiwan, China. The samples consisted of 206 senior high school students in Akita, 190Tanegashima, 122 Tsushima, 225 Okinawa and 197 Taiwan. Measurements were made twice by one operator using specially made sliding calipers. The reliability of measurement was evaluated on each tooth.
From principal component analysis for summarizing variations of the measurements and their indices, seven components were extracted. MAHALANOBIS' generalized distances among five populations were calculated based on eight tooth crown diameters from the above components. The five populations were divided into three groups: one was solely Tsushima, and the other two were Akita and Okinawa, and Tanegashima and Taiwan. When compared with prehistoric Japanese, Jomon and Doigahama-Yayoi(BRACE and NAGAI, 1982), Tsushima was close to Yayoi, but Tanegashima and Taiwan were close to Jomon.
