Seeing RED: A novel solution to a familiar categorical data problem

Biological anthropologists interested in population interactions compare biological relationships among living populations, among past populations, and between living and past populations. To do this, we utilize datasets that can be compared equivalently across space and time. One such source of data comes from dental morphological traits, nonmetric characteristics observable on the crown surfaces of teeth. Tooth morphology is largely under genetic control and less affected by environmental factors than many other tissue systems (Hillson 1996; Larsen and Kelley 1991; Scott et al. 2018), and therefore presents an effective dataset with which to trace intrapopulation variation, interpopulation relationships, and microevolution.