Grant To Investigate The Teeth Of Our Ancestors
An investigation into the evolution of human teeth has been funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).
A period of 3 years has been set aside for the project, with hopes that the findings will reveal how our ancestors’ teeth and tooth arrangement or dentition evolved. The research may also uncover why only humans and mammals have just two sets of teeth during their life. This will be held in comparison to our older ancestors, such as fish, who are able to regenerate their teeth over and over again.
Every vertebrate with a jaw needs to have a functional set of teeth in order to feed, but very little is understood about how such things have evolved due to the difficulty when interpreting tooth development in fossils.
One of the lead researchers of the study, Professor Moya Meredith Smith from King’s College London, commented on the areas of study. One of the main objectives of the study was to find our how dentitions were and are built. For this area of research she feels the team will have to look to the teeth of fish, who build up their teeth frequently.
Dr Zerina Johanson of the Natural History Museum, a co-ordinator of the team, planned to examine the different arrangements of teeth of today’s vertebrates and then compare them to the fossils of their jawed ancestors. Vertebrates with jaws have evolved into numerous types of fish and animals, but only two main groups remain today: osteichthyes also known as bony fish and chondrichthyes or sharks. We and our fellow mammals evolved from bony fish, but the study will also examine chondrichthyans that are alive today, such as rays and sharks, to also look how the teeth and dentition of these creatures have evolved.
The research will also examine tooth regeneration, which is a part of normal tooth development in most of today’s modern fish.
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