Tooth size of living peoples in western and eastern Micronesian populations

Tooth size of two populations from Micronesia was measured and compared with other Pacific populations. Subjects were high school students of Kiribati and Palau, surveyed in 1995 and 1996. Mesiodistal diameters were generally larger in Palau than in Kiribati in both sexes, while buccolingual diameters of Kiribati were slightly larger than those of Palau. Mahalanobis' distances were computed on the basis of these parameters among 10 Pacific populations. Two dimensional expression of the distances in multi-dimensional scaling showed that Palau and Kiribati were plotted in the center of the first axis closely to Samoa, while Fiji and Negritos were plotted on both ends of the axis. The two Micronesians were separated on the second axis. The results of cluster analysis revealed that Kiribati was classified into Fiji group, while Palau was grouped with Samoa and modern Philippines.