Summary

Dr. Tanya Smith of Griffith University talks about teeth — everything from individual development to using teeth to understand past environments and lifestyles. She also talks about some of the cultural practices surrounding teeth.

Recommendations

• What to read to learn more:
  • The Tales Teeth Tell: Development, Evolution, Behavior by Tanya Smith
  • What teeth can tell about the lives and environments of ancient humans and Neanderthals by Tanya Smith at The Conversation
  • Dr. Tanya M. Smith’s website
• What she’s reading for work right now:
  • Ancient environments in east Africa
  • Climate reconstruction via chemical changes in teeth
• What she’s consuming for fun:
  • An Interrupted Life by Etty Hillesum
  • Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia edited by Anita Heiss
• BONUS – What I was reading:
  • The History of White People by Nell Ervin Painter
  • Six of Crows Duology by Leigh Bardugo

Reference articles

• Smith, T.M.,* Austin, C.*, Green, D.R.* Joannes-Boyau, R.* Bailey, S., Dumitriu, D., Fallon, S., Grün, R., James, H.F., Moncel, M-H., Williams, I.S., Wood, R., Arora, M. (2018) Wintertime stress, nursing, and lead exposure in Neanderthal children. Sci. Adv. 4: eaau9483. * These authors contributed equally to this work.
• Papakyrikos, A.P., Arora, M., Austin, C., Boughner, J.C., Capellini, T.D., Dingwall, H.L., Greba, Q., Howland, J.G., Kato, A., Wang, X-P., Smith, T.M. (2020) Biological clocks and incremental growth line formation in dentine. J. Anat. 237: 367–378.
• Anthropology Has a Bullying Problem Too — blog by Tanya Smith