Abstract
A well-developed basal tubercle was found in the lingual surface of the upper central incisor in the Cook Islanders. The basal tubercle was accompanied with large spines, and limited to the central incisor. Such a configuration was thought to be almost the same characteristic as the “tubercle-shaped” incisor observed in Homo erectus, Peking man in China (Adloff, 1938). Females exceeded males in frequency of the basal tubercle. This characteristic was associated significantly with the spine (P<0.01), but not significantly with shovelling. Although the tooth size of the central incisor with a pronounced tubercle tended to be larger than that without the tubercle, the difference was not significant.
