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Technical Note: Dental Microwear Textures Of "Phase I" And "Phase Ii" Facets, Kristin L. Krueger, Jessica R. Scott, Richard F. Kay, Peter S. Ungar

Anthropology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The power stroke of mastication has been traditionally divided into two parts, one which precedes centric occlusion, and the other which follows it-"Phase I" and "Phase II," respectively. Recent studies of primate mastication have called into question the role of Phase II in food processing, as they have found little muscle activity or accompanying bone strain following centric occlusion. That said, many researchers today look to Phase II facets to relate diet to patterns of dental microwear. This suggests the need to reevaluate microwear patterns on Phase I facets. Here we use texture analysis to compare and contrast microwear on …