Bite's evolution: a biomechanical study of Pleistocene humans in Europe

We are what we eat.

Changes in diet triggered the progressive simplification of the cranio-dental system from our ancestors until the ultimate adaption of our species. Compared to ours, Neanderthals possessed a complex dental morphology interpreted as an adaption for mechanical loads.

However, how morphometric dental traits evolved to adapt to diet or cultural habits as well as the pace of these changes throughout human evolution are unknown.

BITE represents the first attempt to investigate complementary dental proxies (dental wear, morphology, and enamel thickness) in a constricted, phylogenetically related, and chronologically consecutive European Pleistocene sample, including the populations from the UNESCO-sites of Atapuerca (H. antecessor and Sima de los Huesos) and Neanderthals, for a comparison with a modern human sample, including modern hunter-gatherers, medieval and contemporaneous groups.

BITE goes beyond the state of the art as it proposes an innovative, interdisciplinary, and holistic approach employing biological data, high-resolution and 3D image, and biomechanical tools, combined with pre-existing dietary information to provide unprecedented insight into how our ancestors adapted to dietary and/or behavioral demands.

The Applicant is an ideal candidate to conduct this multidisciplinary project as she has knowledge in dental anthropology, palaeoanthropology, palaeopathology, and 3D medical imaging, and she will receive training-through-research in biomechanical tools to expand her expertise.

This fellowship will position her as a dynamic and independent researcher, being one of the few experts in Biomechanics for the study of hominin evolution in Europe.

BITE also represents an opportunity to make visible to the society and scientific community the excellence of Europe's science as a world reference for Human Evolution studies and enhance the collaboration with the private sector (e.g., dentistry) for the design of more resistant artificial crowns.