Palaeoanthropologists use fossil teeth to reconstruct our evolutionary past. Unfortunately, information about tooth shape is lost as they wear down during an individual’s lifetime.
A research team including Reader in Biological Anthropology, Dr Matthew Skinner, used micro-computed tomography (aka 3D high resolution x-rays) to create digital models of teeth and virtually remove their worn enamel to reveal the pristine dentine core.
In this paper, part of a series covering all the teeth in the jaws, the team study unique traits of mandibular premolars in non-human apes (such as chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans) and our fossil relatives from 4 million years ago up to fossil modern humans. The publication demonstrates that these traits can be used to identify species and track major changes in tooth shape over the course of human evolution.
Endostructural morphology in hominoid mandibular third molars: Discrete traits at the enamel-dentine junction by Thomas W. Davies, Lucas K. Delezene, Philipp Gunz, Jean-Jacques Hublin and Matthew M. Skinner is published in the November 2019 issue of the Journal of Human Evolution.