Christopher W. Schmidt - University of Indianapolis Archeology ...

TABLE 2.7. Position of Mental Foramen (MF) in Various Populations (Simonton, 1923).
Percentages indicate those individuals with the trait.
Group
Position of
the MF %
Europeans P4 33
Kentucky Indians P4 56
Arkansas Indians P4 72
California Indians (and other states)
anterior to
P4 37
Africans P4 28
Melanesians P4/M1 36
Japanese P4 40
Eskimos P4 43
Egyptians P4 26
In a similar study, Montagu (1954) looked at 100 European individuals and found that the
most common position of the mental foramen is beneath the fourth premolar. In his sample of
pooled males and females, 12% had the mental foramen beneath the third premolar, 22% had the
mental foramen situated below the junction between the third and fourth premolar, 63% had the
mental foramen positioned underneath the fourth premolar, and 3% had the mental foramen
below the junction between the fourth premolar and the first molar.
Studies on the mylohyoid bridge. The mylohyoid bridge is an osseous roof that covers
parts or all of the mylohyoid groove, forming a canal on the medial aspect of the mandible. This
“quasi-continuous” anomaly may derive embryologically from Meckel’s cartilage (Ossenberg,
1974; Arensburg & Nathan, 1979; Hauser & DeStefano, 1989) and ranges in frequency from
0.47% in French Europeans to 33.8% in Plains American Indians (Bass, 1964; Ossenberg, 1974).
The controversy that surrounds the mylohyoid bridge pertains to its usefulness as a valid genetic
marker for population studies. Some scientists suggest that it may be utilized to differentiate
ancestral groups (Ossenberg, 1974; Sawyer et al., 1978; Sawyer & Kiely, 1987; Sawyer et al.,
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