Maxillary premolar crown morphology. A preliminary study.

There seems to be a reluctance to use the Osborn terminology for identifying crown structures in the premolars of man. This may be attributed to the lack of studies on the premolars of man in which their topography has been compared with molars. We have attempted to do this using the principles of serial homology. Our study confirms that the two major maxillary premolar cusps in man are the paracone and protocone. We suggest that the lingual cingulum and the metacone have been lost and that remnants of the metaconule have made a contribution to the distal crown margin.