News

Emma Sudron won Third Place for Best Student Presentation at the  Australasian Society for Human Biology’s 37th Annual Conference in Brisbane.  

Emma Sudron won Best Talk (Pre-Confirmation category) at the 2022 Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security & Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution Student Symposium.

Professor Smith contributed an article to Enlighten: Teeth hold valuable clues for understanding ancient climates and evolutionary processes.

Emma Sudron will be joining the Dental Tissues Laboratory Group as a PhD student after completing her Bachelor of Arts and Science and BA with Honours in Anthropology at the University of Otago.

Maya Bharatiya won Second Place for Best Student Poster Presentation at the 2021 Australasian Human Biology Conference.

Professor Smith was awarded the 2021 Griffith University Vice Chancellor’s Research Excellence Award for a Mid-Career Researcher.

Dr. Petra Vaiglova will be joining the Dental Tissues Laboratory Group as a postdoctoral fellow in 2022.

Professor Smith delivered a keynote address on resilience in research and in life to the 2021 New Zealand Association for Women in Science conference.

Mehar (Maya) Bharatiya will be joining the Dental Tissues Laboratory Group as a PhD student after completing double majors in Human Evolutionary Biology and Anthropology at Stony Brook University.

Professor Smith and Dr. Christine Austin contributed an article to The Conversation: Teeth contain detailed records of lead contamination in humans and other primates.

Professor Smith and Dr. Michelle Langley discussed The Story of the Human Body on ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Radio

Listen to the podcast The Teeth Remember recorded for the Leakey Foundation.

Professor Smith was awarded a prestigious Future Fellowship from the Australian Research Council to study ancient human development, evolution, and behavior.

Article on Academics without Borders penned by Professor Smith for the American Association for Women in Science’s Summer 2020 Magazine.

Professor Smith contributed an article to The Conversation: Baby steps: this ancient skull is helping us trace the path that led to modern childhood.

In-depth article on Professor Smith in the Spring 2020 Geneseo Scene.

Canadian book launch of The Tales Teeth Tell September 21, 2019 at the University of Alberta.

Listen to the podcast of Professor Smith lecture on Growing Up Neanderthal at the Gold Coast Skeptics Meeting.

Professor Smith’s research on primate nursing was featured in The New York Times.

Cosmo article on Virtual Paleontology featuring Paul Tafforeau and and our work on Neanderthal dental development.

Professors Smith and Williams represented the Dental Detectives team as finalists for the Australian Museum’s 2019 Eureka Prize for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Scientific Research.

The Tales Teeth Tell will be available from February 2020 as a Chinese simplified character translation.

American book launch April 2nd, 2019 in Geneseo, NY at Professor Smith’s undergraduate Alma Mater, SUNY Geneseo.

Top of Mind Podcast Your Teeth are Time Capsules with Julie Rose @ BYO Radio.

Missed the Australian book launch of The Tales Teeth Tell? Check out this synopsis of the Griffith Sciences IMPACT lecture: Ten Tales Teeth Tell.

Gastropodcast The Truth is in the Tooth with Peter Ungar.

PLAYA blog Storytelling Teeth about a writing retreat in magical Oregon.

National Geographic article: Neanderthal teeth reveal intimate details of daily life.

CNN.com: Earliest discovery of lead exposure found in Neanderthal children.

Science article: Neanderthal children shivered and suffered in ancient Europe.

Dr. Smith contributed an article to The ConversationWhat teeth can tell about the lives and environments of ancient humans and Neanderthals.

The Show About Science podcast interview with Nate, the amazing 7 year-old whiz kid!

Dr. Daniel Green’s paper Quantitative reconstruction of seasonality from stable isotopes in teeth in now online in GCA.

Dr. Daniel Green’s paper Determinants of blood water delta O-18 variation in a population of experimental sheep is now online in Chemical Geology.

Dr. Daniel Green’s paper Synchrotron imaging and Markov Chain Monte Carlo reveal tooth mineralization patterns is now online in PLOS ONE.

Dr. Smith’s collaborative research on human tooth structure is detailed in The ConversationOld teeth from a rediscovered cave show humans were in Indonesia more than 63,000 years ago.

Dr. Smith contributed an article to The ConversationThe lengthy childhood of endangered orangutans is written in their teeth.

Daniel Green successfully defended his PhD dissertation, Reconstructing Oxygen Isotope Seasonality in Large Herbivores Through Mineralization Modeling, Experimentation and Optimization on Monday December 19th, 2016.

Dr. Smith has joined the faculty of the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia.

Kate Carter successfully defended her dissertation, The Evolution of Third Molar Agenesis and Impaction, on Monday April 11th, 2016.

Dr. Smith is on sabbatical through June 2016 at the UC Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.

Watch Dr. Smith’s lecture on Teeth and Human Evolution at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

Predictors of Third Molar ImpactionA Systematic Review and Meta-analysis by Kate Carter and Steven Worthington is now online in the Journal of Dental Research.

Neanderthal Behavioral Modernity and Symbolic Capabilities by Freshman Seminar student Liam McGill is now online in Field Notes.

Dr. Smith’s research on chimpanzee dental development and life history I featured on The Leakey Foundation features blog.

Morphologic and Demographic Predictors of Third Molar Agenesis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis by Kate Carter and Steven Worthington is now online in the Journal of Dental Research.

Press ReleaseComplex Evolution of Human Dental Development.

Dental Hard Tissue Laboratory members Dr. Nancy Tang and Amanda Papakyrikos accept prestigious positions at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Stanford University, respectively.

Dr. Smith and the Dental Hard Tissue Lab are featured in a Science for the Public interview.

Press Release: Tracking Diet Transitions During Infancy from Teeth.

Kate Carter wins The Albert A. Dahlberg Prize from the Dental Anthropology Association for Best Student Paper, “The Evolution of Third Molar Agenesis”, at the 82nd Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Knoxville, TN.

Dental Hard Tissue Lab Group storms the American Association of Physical Anthropologists’ (AAPA) 2013 Meeting with six presentations.

Press Release and Supplemental Videos: First molar eruption, weaning, and life history in living wild chimpanzees.
Click here for the feature article in the Harvard Gazette, “Watching Teeth Grow”. 

BBC Documentary “Virtual Autopsy” features research on Neanderthal dental development at the synchrotron in Grenoble.

HEB 1421 student research published in the Spring 2012 issue of The Harvard Undergraduate Research Journal.

Press Release: Harvard Undergraduate Honors Thesis Research Published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

Evolutionary Anthropology Article: Developmental variation of the primate dentition: The 2011 AAPA Symposium in Honor of Don Reid. The symposium was organized by Dr. Smith and Dr. Deborah Guatelli-Steinberg.

Press Release: Synchrotron Reveals Human Children Outpaced Neanderthals by Slowing Down.

Audio & Video Links: NPR | BBC

Public lecture at the California Academy of Science: A Bite Through Time

Symbols Article: Peabody Museum’s 2011 Symbols features research on fossil hominin tooth development.

Nature News Article: Neanderthals Matured Faster (Nature, 11.2010).

Research conducted by the Dental Hard Tissue Laboratory was featured in two PBS Nova Series“The Human Spark” and “Becoming Human,” which aired November 17th, 2009 and January 6, 2010, respectively.

Dr. Smith’s collaborative work with Dr. Paul Tafforeau (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility) was featured in Discovery Magazine: The Secret Life of Fossils, July/August issue 2009.

The Harvard Museum of Natural History is featuring a permanent exhibit on Evolution which includes an interview with Dr. Smith and other evolutionary biologists at Harvard University.

Science News Article: The Birth of Childhood (Science, 11.2008).

Dr. Smith’s collaborative work with Dr. Paul Tafforeau (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility) was featured in the October 2008 issue of National Geographic: The Last of the Neanderthals.

PBS “Human Spark” film crew causes a splash in Grenoble with Dr. Smith and Dr. Tafforeau.

Evidence for evolution from tooth growth featured in online exhibit at the Exploratorium.

Science News Article: Dental Evidence Suggests Neanderthals Matured Faster Than We Do (Science, 12.2007). Click here for the press release.

Science News Article: Paleontologists Get X-ray Vision (Science, 12.2007).

Press Release: How long is a child a child?