Dental and mtDNA Relatedness Among Thousand-Year-Old Remains from Huaca Loro, Peru

Abstract

Within and between tombs at the site of Huaca Loro (ca. A.D. 1000) on north coastal Peru, biological relatedness based on 23 dental characters follows statistically significant patterns. mtDNA groupings that are based on lineages inferred from inherited derived D-loop bp sequences have also been traced among the individuals. The present study finds a significant, although rather poorly predictive, relation between mtDNA and dental interindividual linkages. When analyzing the individual dental traits for correspondence to mtDNA “lineages”, several significant relations are found and one trait in particular, buccal expansion of the maxillary distal premolar, corresponds highly to mtDNA patterning.