Doctoral Dissertation Research: Tooth biomechanics in Hominins and Extant Primates

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).

This doctoral dissertation project advances knowledge about the relationship between tooth root shape variation and feeding adaptations in living primates and fossil hominins, to advance knowledge about feeding and diet during human evolution. The project uses methods and works with collaborators from a variety of fields including paleontology, anthropology, anatomy, and primatology, providing integration and cross-disciplinary perspectives for understanding human evolution.

The project supports graduate and undergraduate training, including individuals from groups underrepresented in STEM research, and the investigator has developed student and public science outreach activities plans well as contributing to primate conservation efforts.

Previous work in primatology and paleoanthropology has considered how tooth crown shape affects the efficiency of processing foods during feeding. However, teeth are subject to an equally important, competing functional constraint; while teeth must function to fracture food items, they must also avoid being fractured themselves. This proposal seeks to answer whether: 1) variation in premolar form is mechanically related to resisting tooth fracture during feeding on mechanically resistant foods; and 2) variation in premolar tooth form explains mechanically significant feeding behavior in fossil hominins.

The project integrates morphometric and engineering analyses coupled with observational behavioral data to test hypotheses concerning the functional relationships of premolar root form, a character featured in many hypotheses about early hominin phylogeny and adaptation. The project also integrates multiple types of data analysis including biomechanical analyses, three-dimensional shape analyses and primate behavior videographic analyses, ensuring a robust and comprehensive approach.

Additionally, methodologies from several fields are incorporated, including biomedical science and engineering, biological anthropology, anatomy, primatology, and evolutionary biology, which provides the potential for collaboration among scientists across these disciplines.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.