The Tales Teeth Tell: Development, Evolution, Behavior

by Tanya M. Smith

Overview

What human teeth can tell us about our evolution, development, and behavior . . .

This fascinating, accessible study will “put a smile on your face with its weird facts about primate dentistry and the shrinking grins of modern-day humans” (Washington Post).

Our teeth have intriguing stories to tell. These sophisticated time machines record growth, diet, and evolutionary history as clearly as tree rings map a redwood's lifespan. Each day of childhood is etched into tooth crowns and roots—capturing birth, nursing history, environmental clues, and illnesses.

The study of ancient, fossilized teeth sheds light on how our ancestors grew up, how we evolved, and how prehistoric cultural transitions continue to affect humans today. In The Tales Teeth Tell, biological anthropologist Tanya Smith offers an engaging and surprising look at what teeth tell us about the evolution of primates—including our own uniqueness.

Humans’ impressive set of varied teeth provides a multipurpose toolkit honed by the diet choices of our mammalian ancestors. Fossil teeth, highly resilient because of their substantial mineral content, are all that is left of some long-extinct species. Smith explains how researchers employ painstaking techniques to coax microscopic secrets from these enigmatic remains. Counting tiny daily lines provides a way to estimate age that is more powerful than any other forensic technique. Dental plaque—so carefully removed by dental hygienists today—records our ancestors' behavior and health in the form of fossilized food particles and bacteria, including their DNA.

Smith also traces the grisly origins of dentistry, reveals that the urge to pick one’s teeth is not unique to humans, and illuminates the age-old pursuit of “dental art.” The book is generously illustrated with original photographs, many in color.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262348935
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	10/23/2018
Series:	The MIT Press
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	296
Sales rank:	128,796
File size:	120 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Tanya M. Smith is Professor in the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. She has held a professorship at Harvard University, and fellowships at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Table of Contents

Introduction; Why Teeth? ix

I Development 1

1 Microscopes, Cells, and Biological Rhythms 3

2 The Big Picture: Birth, Death, and Everything in Between 27

3 Things That Can Go Wrong: Stress, Pathology, and Dysevolution 51

II Evolution 75

4 The Fish to Primate Transformation 77

5 From Humble Beginnings: Human Origins and Evolution 101

6 Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Growth and Development 123

III Behavior 143

7 Paleo Dining 145

8 Teeth as Tools, Warning Signs, and Homing Devices 167

9 Tooth Manipulation through the Ages 187

Concluding Thoughts: The Future That Teeth Foretell 209

Acknowledgments 219

Notes 221

Index 269

What People are Saying About This

Endorsement

Tanya Smith's masterful overview of teeth blends personal narrative with cutting-edge science. Skillfully written and illustrated, her account is accessible and informative, the best available introduction to how and why our teeth reveal so much about our biology.

—Tim D. White, Professor of Integrative Biology and Director of the Human Evolution Research Center at the University of California at Berkeley

From the Publisher

Teeth are important to our lives and well-being, but we tend to take them for granted. Tanya Smith's beautifully illustrated book clearly explains all the fascinating and mostly unappreciated details of our teeth, from the first tiny germ to the full-grown adult tooth. An unexpectedly engrossing and informative read!

—Meave Leakey, Professor, Stony Brook University and Turkana Basin Institute

Who would have thought teeth had so much to recount? In her absorbing and authoritative Tales Teeth Tell Tanya Smith lucidly explains the evolutionary, functional, developmental, and pathological records encapsulated in the dentition.  Along the way, she constructs an unconventional and sometimes surprising perspective on who we human beings are, and where we came from.

—Ian Tattersall, author of The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack: And Other Cautionary Tales from Human Evolution

Tanya Smith's masterful overview of teeth blends personal narrative with cutting-edge science. Skillfully written and illustrated, her account is accessible and informative, the best available introduction to how and why our teeth reveal so much about our biology.

—Tim D. White, Professor of Integrative Biology and Director of the Human Evolution Research Center at the University of California at Berkeley

Editorial Reviews

The Tales Teeth Tell is an accessible, personal, often funny and occasionally controversial look into the murk of human evolution . . . [the book] is chock full of fascinating science, but it's also the personal story of a woman of science immersed in her work.
—Shelf Awareness

In a time when people are more interested than ever in where they came from, The Tales Teeth Tell gives readers a way to look beyond a DNA cheek swab for information about their pasts, both recent and deep . . . By the end of her tooth-centric tour through childhood, the distant past, and modern cultures, Smith will have convinced you that your teeth are time machines.
—Massive Science

The Tales Teeth Tell might make you more impressed by what's in your mouth — or put a smile on your face with its weird facts about primate dentistry and the shrinking grins of modern-day humans. The book is written by an academic and has plenty of notes. But it's accessible to science-minded readers.
—Washington Post

A mix of fascinating findings at all scales, from scanning electron microscopy displaying the exquisite geometry of enamel prisms, to toothpick use among hominins some 2 million years ago.
—Nature

Smith's writing is informative, absorbing, and manages to elegantly cover a wide range of topics.
—The Inquisitive Biologist

From the Publisher