Project description
A new approach to human dental analysis
Understanding human evolution relies on accurate identification and phylogenetic analysis of fossils. Teeth, crucial for this due to their genetic control and excellent preservation, are currently analysed individually. This method overlooks important variations across the entire tooth row, leading to unresolved issues in hominin systematics. Moreover, missing teeth in fossils complicate analyses further. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the TOOTHROW project will develop a framework to analyse the entire tooth row, even with incomplete specimens. Using geometric morphometrics and multivariate statistics, TOOTHROW will enable the reconstruction of missing teeth and analyse the full dental arcade. Hosted by the University of Vienna, this project will enhance morphometric applications in palaeontology, morphology, and forensics.
Objective
Our understanding of human evolution depends on reliable taxonomic identification of fossils and an understanding of their phylogenetic relationships. Teeth are a key source of evidence: they are well-preserved in the fossil record and their morphology is under strong genetic control. State-of-the-art methods involve 3D morphological analysis of internal dental structures, but due to statistical challenges and fossils frequently missing teeth, these analyses focus on each tooth position individually. This means that important aspects of variation across the tooth row are not captured, and as a result, key issues in hominin systematics remain unresolved.
TOOTHROW will overcome these limitations by developing a novel methodological framework to analyse the morphology of the entire tooth row in a single analysis, even in incomplete specimens. I will use cutting-edge geometric morphometrics and multivariate statistics to estimate the morphology of teeth missing from fossil specimens, providing a powerful reconstruction tool. Morphological analysis of the complete dental arcade will be developed and tested on large extant hominoid samples, before being applied to two fossil hominins: Homo habilis and Homo naledi. Both species are central to our understanding of human evolution, yet the relationship between them and other hominins remains unresolved.
The R-based analytical toolkit developed by TOOTHROW will advance applications of geometric morphometrics to include multiple skeletal elements, with applications in fields such as palaeontology, vertebrate morphology and forensics. The University of Vienna, home to a leading competence centre in morphometrics, and embedded in large networks of anthropological and evolutionary research, is the ideal host for this project. Results will be disseminated to a broad range of audiences through scientific conferences, publications in high-impact open access journals, an open-source R toolkit and outreach activities.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencespalaeontology
- social sciencessociologyanthropologyphysical anthropology
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Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
1010 Wien
Austria