Tied2Teeth is a European Research Council Advanced Grant project hosted by the CENIEH funded through the 2021 call for applications. Financial support is provided from 1 November 2022 through October 2027.
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Employment opportunities: We will soon be searching for two technicians to assist with data entry and data collection. The calls will be posted on the CENIEH employment page, but please also feel free to contact us via email.
The project: Teeth dominate the fossil and bioarchaeological records because they consist mostly of inorganic material. Consequently, dental anthropology has long been essential in our investigation of the human past. Variation in the anatomy of teeth is instrumental for differentiating species, identifying biological affinities between populations, making inferences about dietary adaptations, and timing key developmental life stages. However, recent advances in genetics, genomics, and developmental biology undermine many assumptions built into anthropologists’ study of the dentition by revealing extensive pleiotropy—when one gene influences more than one anatomical structure simultaneously. While this fact may, at first, appear to be a setback, the Tied2Teeth project turns pleiotropy into an advantage. We will use the pleiotropies that involve teeth to open windows to the evolution of human anatomies far beyond the dentition.
The Tied2Teeth project employs three methodological approaches that utilize pleiotropy to probe different aspects of human paleobiology. The first approach uses quantitative genetic analyses to calibrate the extent to which cranial evolution is genetically correlated with dental evolution. In the second approach, we employ large historical morphological datasets combined with the modern insight from genome-wide-association-studies (GWAS) to explore how the evolution of soft-tissue anatomy may have driven changes in the dentition. Finally, we turn to the fossil record. Using traits that were defined using a pleiotropic approach, we test the hypothesis that environmental selection influenced dental variation during two key time periods within the evolution of genus Homo.
This project modernizes the study of the human past by incorporating the phenomenon of dental pleiotropy. By combining these three different approaches and a range of time scales, we turn the conundrum of pleiotropy into a powerful tool for studying human evolution.
Good morning Dr. Hlusko,
I’m fascinated by your research plans. Your approach opens the doors to uncharted territory with so much to explore – I feel the inkling of obsession brewing. The scientific community has revealed a great deal of hominin history; however, the specifics are still rather ambiguous. Molecular clocks and fossilized skeletal remains only get us so far. Your approach could be the “smoking gun”. Please keep me informed and I’d be honored to do anything I can to get involved. Hope to connect soon.
-John A. Laakso
Science Department
St. Thomas Aquinas High School