News

Together with A/Prof. Alistair Evans and Dr. Justin Adams we have been recently successful with the Faculty of Science and Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences (MNHS) Interdisciplinary Research Seed Funding grants. The last three million years have been characterised by strong climatic instability that drove many species to extinction. However, how climate change over this timescale has affected the growth and development of mammals cannot currently be assessed. In this project we will use a highly innovative approach,

Our new study on two-million-year-old teeth from Australopithecus africanus fossils, published in Nature, reveals the impact of seasonal climatic changes on the survival of this species. Together with Dr. Renaud Joannes-Boyau from Souther Cross University and Dr. Justin W. Adams, we have analysed the chemical composition of fossilised teeth. Australopithecus africanus mothers breastfed their infants for the first 12 months after birth, and continued to supplement their diets with breastmilk during periods of food shortage. This finding demonstrates why early

Our latest work titled “Dental macrowear and cortical bone distribution of the Neanderthal mandible from Regourdou (Dordogne, Southwestern France)” has been recently published in the Journal of Human Evolution. It is probably one of the most detailed study on a single Neanderthal individual showing the level of details that can be reconstructed from the analyses of dental macrowear and cortical bone distribution. The skeletal remains of Regourdou 1 were discovered in 1957, and belonged to a young adult, probably around

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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