Abstract
The dentition of the Cook islanders was metrically examined in terms of inter-island variation and biological population affinity. The mesiodistal and buccolingual crown diameters of the permanent dentition were recorded here on 146 plaster casts of male minors in the Cook Islands. According to the ethnic origin or native island of each subject, the samples have been divided into six population series. The results revealed that Pukapukans were greatest in tooth size among the Cook Islands peoples, and that the differences between Pukapukans and the other Cook Islands populations were significant for the mesiodistal dimensions of the upper and lower second premolars, and the first and second molars, and for the buccolingual of the upper central incisor and the lower second molar. Within the samples from the southern group of Cooks, however, no difference was found in tooth size. The part-European sample showed a rather close distance to those of the southern Cook populations, but did a considerably great distance from the Pukapukan sample. Through the comparison with several ethnic populations in Oceania, there emerged two major clusters: a Cooks-Taumako-Hawaii-Java cluster and a cluster consisting of populations from New Guinea, Bougainville and Australia. The present findings of odontometric analysis supported the biological dichotomy in Oceanic populations, which was proposed by some osteological and dental morphological studies.
