The natural history of the helicoidal occlusal plane and its evolution in early Homo

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Abstract
In modern man the pitch of the occlusal plane may vary along the tooth-row. When anterior cheek-teeth show a plane sloping upward palatally, while that on posterior cheek-teeth slopes upward buccally, there results a twisted or helicoidal occlusal plane. Several hypotheses were proposed for the structural basis of the helicoidal occlusal plane. Campbell''s proposal that the helicoid results from antero-posterior differences in upper and lower alveolar arch width has gained the widest acceptance. In the early 1960''s, during study of the Olduvai hominids assigned to H. habilis, changing occlusal slopes along the tooth-row and a slight helicoid were noted, although these features had not been noted in other early hominids. Wallace showed a total absence of the helicoid from South African australopithecines, and its presence in Swartkrans Homo, SK 45 and SK 80. Recent studies confirm the presence of the helicoid in all available specimens of H. habilis, including Stw 53 found at Sterkfontein in 1976. This trait may distinguish between Australopithecus and early Homo. Measurements of the maxillary arch widths have shown that, whereas in Australopithecus arch widths increase to a maximum at M3, in early Homo maxillary arch widths are greatest at M2. The decline in posterior maxillary arch width is part of a general reduction of that region. Despite striking elongation of premolars and M1 in early Homo, M2 and M3 are mesiodistally abbreviated. The onset of posterior arch reduction, with the appearance of a helicoid, probably was a structural and functional concomitant of the transition from the presumed australopithecine ancestor to H. habilis.

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