Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
M. nemestrina fetuses. Using these X-rays, I collected the data on tooth growth, analyzed
them, and wrote up the results.
During that time, I was enrolled in several paleoanthropology courses that piqued my
curiosity in life history evolution and I was searching for a way to connect these two interests.
My advisors helped to guide me through independent reading lists for the topics and with
tailoring my final projects for the other courses I was taking through the next two years.
With this guidance I was able to begin exploration of the connections between life history
and dental development.
During the literature review aspect for my dissertation, it stood out to me that currently we
only use information about permanent tooth growth in primates to assess life histories for
fossil hominin species. Moreover, the potential information that the deciduous teeth might
give us is generally disregarded. It became apparent that the reason for this was a general
lack of information on the growth and development of the deciduous teeth in living primates
(even for humans). Even studies that meticulously detailed the growth of the permanent
teeth rarely mentioned the deciduous teeth that were present in the very specimens that
were being studied. The consequence of the dearth of knowledge in this area was that
when an incredible specimen like the Dikika baby (DIK-1; a juvenile Australopithecus afaren-
sis) was found, despite having a mouth full of deciduous teeth, only the permanent teeth
received any attention in the analysis (
Alemseged et al., 2006
).
I brought this observation to the attention of my advisor and suggested a project that
would examine the development of the deciduous teeth in chimpanzees. Because chimpan-
zees and humans are so closely related, studying the similarities and differences in their
dental development could help with interpreting the teeth of our ancestors. Several consid-
erations would have to be made: How would this project be more than a “filling in the
gaps” style of study that simply reported on dental growth in chimpanzees? Although
such studies are useful for expanding our knowledge base, a study of this type would
not actively engage the question of hominin dental development that I was interested in
exploring. Where would this study be best situated
d
in primate growth and development
or paleoanthropology? Is the topic relevant
d
are there enough juvenile fossil hominids with
deciduous teeth to make this study necessary and useful? These questions resulted in
several more literature searches and reviews, further refinement of the study parameters
and aim, and after a final consultation with my advisor I received permission to proceed
with the project.
Part of the advanced exam protocol at my university involved constructing a grant
proposal for an appropriate funding agency that would also serve as a template for my
dissertation proposal. Knowing this in advance (and that regardless, I would need outside
funding to complete the project) I began mapping out the logistics of the project. First and
foremost, I would have to locate appropriate specimens. For my project, I would need
over 100 fetal, neonatal, and juvenile chimpanzees in order to accurately characterize varia-
tion within the species for the subsequent statistical analyses.
After a couple of months of e-mails (returned and unreturned), follow-up phone calls
(significantly more successful than e-mail in most cases), and out-of-pocket trips to several
museums (which led on two occasions to getting shoulder deep in large vats filled with
preserved specimens only to come up empty), I had located a grand total of two fetal chim-
panzees. That's right, two.
