BEST PARAMETERS

In order to decide which parameters are best for describing convexity we arranged the results for each of the eight profile classes in ascending order of the value of the first parameter (S). The sequence of the species thus obtained was compared with the sequences resulting from sorting the data in ascending order for each of the other parameters. The differences in rank order for each species were added, and the resulting sum used as an indicator of similarity, and this procedure was repeated, taking each one of the other parameters as the basis for comparison. The three parameters that gave the highest degree of similarity with all other parameters are for the lower molars: h, h/r, and b/2r; for the upper molars: h/r, b/2r, and h/b; and for the upper and lower molars together: h/r, b/2r, and h/b. Since h/r gives the highest degree of similarity between all profile classes, we decided to focus on that parameter. This does not mean that the other parameters are not useful. Our raw data are available to any reader interested in investigating the usefulness of the other parameters.