News

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

Simultaneously with the 17th International Symposium on Dental Morphology the Spanish and Portoguese Primatological associations organised in Burgos (Spain) the VI Iberian Primatological Conference, where we presented (Dr. Emiliano Bruner) a work on Cranial integration and airorhynchy in Alouatta seniculus. You can have a look on the program on the following link: http://www.apespain.org/cip6/home/ Below a photo of our poster presented by Emiliano Bruner

The final stop-over of this long European tour was Bordeaux (France), for the 17th International Symposium on Dental Morphology (ISDM), a great conference with many interesting talks, where I met old and new friends. A great thanks to Dr. Priscilla Bayle who was behind the fabulous organisation of this event. https://isdm-iapo-2017.sciencesconf.org/ The venue of the conference was an old monastery reconverted  as an auditorium, definitely a unique place for a scientific meeting!

Last week I had the pleasure to visit the CENIEH, Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana, that is one of the major European research centers on Human Evolution. Is located in Burgos, in the northern Spain, very close to the archaeological site of Atapuerca, a UNESCO World Heritage site, containing human fossil remains from nearly one million till more recent times. I was kindly invited by Dr. Emiliano Bruner to give a talk on “Imaging and Analysis in

At the beginning of this week I have visited the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin to collect additional orangutan data for our research project on great apes ecology. In particular, I was looking to the Sumatran orangutans, ecologically and morphologically different from Bornean orangutans, and thus considerate a separate species, Pongo abelii. I need to thank Steffen Bock, the collection manager, who helped me during my stay at the museum. A wonderful natural history museum that I suggest you all