News

Congratulations to Jinyoung (Claire) Lee (the 1st on the left) and Sarah Fung (third from the left) who have successfully completed their Honours degree with a First Class Honours! Claire worked on occlusion in Australian aboriginal childrem from Yuendumu (Northern Territory) using a longitudinal sample, while Sarah specifically focus on function morphology of the Carabelli trait (a small additional cusp found on the mesiolingual aspect of upper molars) using the different individuals from the same population. The Palaeodiet Research Lab

It is with great pleasure to announce that the Palaeodiet Research Lab, in collaboration with Prof. Stefano Benazzi from the University of Bologna (Italy) and Dr. Rachel Sarig from Tel Aviv University (Israel), have been successful to the recent ARC Discovery Project 2019 round ($245,600) with a project titled: A real-time biomechanical study of Neanderthal anterior dentition This project aims to advance understanding of the evolution of human dentition using an innovative approach that integrates sophisticated 3D digital modelling with

The 8th Annual Meeting of the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution (ESHE) has just taken place in Faro, Portugal, from 13th to 15th of September. These three intensive days on research on human evolution have been very interesting, and showed some great works ranging from the first direct evidence for admixture among Pleistocene hominins, to new archaeological discoveries from West Turkana (Kenya) or the Levant (Israel). The conference, held at the University of Algarve, saw several hundreds

Our manuscript on the use of 3D printing in dental anthropology collections has been recently published in teh American Journal of Physical Anthropology, and it is now available online on the following link:  https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au/doi/abs/10.1002/ajpa.23640 We compared the accuracy of different 3D printers to establish whether Rapid Prototyping (RP) technology can be used effectively to reproduce anthropological dental collections, and potentially replacing access to oftentimes fragile and irreplaceable original material. The quality of current commercial 3D printers has reached a good

Between 1951 and 1971 dental anthropologists from the University of Adelaide annually examined the dentition of Australian Aboriginal children and young adults from Yuendumu (Northern Territory). Nowadays, this collection consists of measurements, radiographs, family data, and more importantly, of 1717 sets of dental casts representing 446 individuals, that were produced mixing impression powder and dental stone material. This indigenous population was at an early stage of transition from a nomadic and hunter-gatherer way of life to a more settled existence, with

Our work on dental macrowear pattern asymmetry in modern human dentition was recently published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. We have analysed tooth wear in Australian Aboriginal people from Yuendumu (Northern Territory) that were at an early stage of transition from a nomadic hunter-gathering lifestyle. We suggest that overall asymmetry in the masticatory apparatus affect occlusal contact areas between antagonist teeth influencing macrowear and chewing efficiency during ontogeny. You can find the article on the following link: Oxilia

Our new study on Neanderthal cranio-facial morphology, led by Prof. Wroe from the University of New England, was recently published on the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. We have employed a combination of different methods using geometric morphometrics (for the virtual reconstruction), finite element analysis, and computational fluid dynamics, where we suggest that the large noses characterising the Neanderthal species helped them to breathe more air while they were running and hunting.     This research has also received

Our work on the functional relationship between tooth wear inclination and diet in Late Pleistocene and modern human populations was recently published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. This is the first study that, contrary to previous studies, shows that Paleolithic humans did not have a much harsher diet compared to modern hunter-gatherers. We have actually found that Neanderthals, for example, were characterized by a much ligther tooth wear than Inuit and Bushmen, with steeper wear inclinations, which may indicate

  Last week I had the opportunity to attend the 31st annual meeting of the Australasian Society for Human Biology (ASHB) that was hold not far from Melbourne, in Ballarat. There were many interesting talks, ranging from bioarcheological studies from Southeast Asian populations to palaeonthropology research on Homo floresiensis. We presented a study on the dental macrowear pattern and cortical bone thickness in the Neanderthal mandible from Regourdou (Southwestern France). It was interesting to see so many HDR students presenting

Our new research on cranial variation on red howler monkeys (Alouatta seniculus), has been recently published in the American Journal of Primatology. Using geometric morphometric methods we suggest that allometry (which describes how the different body parts of an organism change with size) is the main source of variation involved in shaping cranial morphology in howlers, influencing the degree of facial proportions and braincase flattening, and generating the main sexual differences. Our manuscript is now accessible in Early View using