Cementochronology using synchrotron radiation tomography to determine age at death and developmental rate in the holotype of Homo luzonensis

Homo luzonensis, a fossil hominin from the Philippines, is smaller than modern humans. At present, very little is known about the life history of this species. Cementochronology can answer life history questions, but usually involves destructive sampling. Here, we use synchrotron radiation to count the yearly cement lines of teeth belonging to a single individual. This approach allows us to determine that this individual was likely 31 years old at time of death and apparently had a developmental pattern comparable to chimpanzees. To our knowledge, this is the first time that cementochronology using synchrotron radiation tomography is used for life history and age-at-death estimation.

吕宋人（Homo luzonensis）是一种来自菲律宾的古人类化石，其体型比现代人类小。目前，人们对该物种的生活史知之甚少。牙骨质年代学可以解答生活史方面的问题，但通常需要进行破坏性取样。在此，我们利用同步辐射来对属于一个个体的牙齿的年生长线进行计数。这种方法使我们能够确定该个体在死亡时可能是31岁，并且其发育模式显然与黑猩猩相似。据我们所知，这是首次将利用同步辐射断层扫描的牙骨质年代学用于生活史和死亡年龄估计。