What teeth reveal about the lives of modern humans

Book explores how scientists use teeth to study human evolution

When anthropologists of the future find our fossilized teeth, what will they be able to conclude about our lives?

Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg has an idea. She is a professor of anthropology at The Ohio State University who studies fossilized teeth to answer questions about the life history, growth, and diet of primates and our human ancestors, as well as the relationships between different species.

In a new book, What Teeth Reveal About Human Evolution (Cambridge University Press, 2016), she gives a broad overview of what scientists have learned about our ancestors from studying fossilized teeth.

As for the teeth of humans living today – well, it is a good thing we have modern dentistry.

“We have teeth that were adapted for eating a very different diet than the one we eat today, at least in Western societies,” Guatelli-Steinberg said.

In the book, she noted that 99 percent of humans’ evolutionary history was spent eating foods that were hunted or gathered. Our current diets of soft, processed and sugary foods are nothing like the diets for which our teeth are adapted. [...] The Ohio State University