Wisdom teeth failing to appear as human jaw evolves
Congratulations to Professor Ron Pinhasi on the publication of the article ‘Wisdom teeth failing to appear as human jaw evolves’ in the Horizon magazine, the European Union’s Research and Innovation Magazine.
"Researchers are studying the evolutionary changes in human jaws to better understand the forces at play, and their work could help improve dental treatment and even regrow lost teeth.
The structure of our jaws has been millions of years in the making, from the earliest vertebrates to people settling down on farms, and it continues to evolve today.
In the past, anatomical changes, such as in the lower jaw, have gone hand-in-hand with changes in human diet. While it may be difficult to determine strict causality, researchers say there is clear evidence of adaptations in the jaw dating back to the transition between foraging and a more settled agriculturalist lifestyle, which took place in the Near East about 10 000 years ago."
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Image credit: 'Jaw xray' is licensed under CC BY 2.0 by Tommy from Arad