

Research Finds Tooth Enamel Fast-Track In Humans

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Research has discovered a link between prenatal enamel growth rates in teeth and weaning in human babies. The research found that incisor teeth grow quickly in the early stages of the second trimester of a baby's development, while molars grow at a slower rate in the third trimester. This is so incisors are ready to erupt after birth, at approximately six months of age, when a baby makes the transition from breast-feeding to weaning.


Exactly when early weaning in humans first began is a hotly debated topic amongst anthropologists. Current dental approaches rely on finding fossil skulls with teeth that are still erupting - which is an extremely rare find. Anthropologists will now be able to explore the start of weaning in an entirely new way because milk teeth preserve a record of prenatal enamel growth after they have erupted and for millennia after death.

Lead In Teeth Tells A Lot

Your teeth can also tell stories about you, and not just that you always forget to floss. A recent study led by University of Florida geology researcher George D. Kamenov showed that trace amounts of lead in modern and historical human teeth can give clues about where they came from. The paper appeared in Science of The Total Environment.


Lead is composed of four variants, called isotopes. The amount of those isotopes fluctuates in different rocks, soils and ores - and, therefore, regions of the world. Mining and other pollution-causing activities release that lead into the environment, and it accumulates in children's bodies as they grow because kids inhale dust and ingest soil when they put their hands in their mouths. Tooth enamel, which develops during childhood, locks in the lead signals and preserves them.



Lead analysis can also tell what time period a body is from. Modern and historical teeth have different signals, according to the study. The natural composition of lead changed over the past century because of mining and the use of leaded gasoline, so there's a clear distinction between modern and historical human exposure. Using that information, archaeologists can identify early European bodies in New World areas.

"You can go back in time, look at archaeological sites and try to reconstruct human migration," Kamenov said. But modern American teeth are like no others in the world, according to the study. Whereas available data for areas such as South America overlap with Europe, American teeth can be identified anywhere due to usage of ores with distinct isotope signals in the United States.



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