| NSF Org: |
BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | December 30, 2019 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | August 9, 2022 |
| Award Number: | 1945008 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
John Yellen
jyellen@nsf.gov (703)292-8759 BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences |
| Start Date: | January 15, 2020 |
| End Date: | December 31, 2023 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $124,440.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $124,440.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1960 KENNY RD COLUMBUS OH US 43210-1016 (614)688-8735 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
Dept. Anthropology, 174 West 18t Columbus OH US 43210-1106 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Biological Anthropology |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.075 |
ABSTRACT
Paleoanthropologists who seek to understand dietary adaptations in human ancestors study modern non-human primates to identify links between dental structure and function. Enamel, the hard, outer covering of a tooth, is one of the most scrutinized aspects of dental anatomy because it interacts with food directly. This research explores how the thickness and structure of tooth enamel, which appear to change over short evolutionary time periods, relate to specific aspects of diet and tooth function in primates. To achieve this goal, this research leverages a collection of primate skeletons housed at The Ohio State University, consisting of Old World monkey skeletons from various field sites. Data on diet and tooth use associated with these skeletal remains provides opportunities to investigate how enamel variation in living primates relates to critical features of their diets and oral processing behavior. As a result of this work, a large collection of microCT scans (~ 400 teeth) and histological slides (60-80 teeth) of primates will be made available, thus enhancing infrastructure for both research and education. Involvement and training of undergraduates in this project contributes to the development of a STEM workforce. Communication of project findings via The Ohio State University's Anthropology Public Outreach Program will increase public engagement with science and technology. Finally, this research is associated with a local project, which has environmental, health, and educational benefits to community members.
This project fills gaps in paleoanthropologists? understanding of how enamel evolves in response to specific aspects of diet and oral processing behavior. Currently, thick enamel in primates presents an ambiguous functional signal, suggesting adaptation to hard and/or abrasive diets. This research investigates whether aspects of enamel thickness distribution, and the angles that enamel prisms make with tooth wear surfaces, are associated with hard-object feeding (i.e., durophagy), potentially providing a basis for inferring adaptation to durophagy in fossil species. Further confounding paleoanthropological interpretation of enamel thickness is that thick enamel may signify adaptation to either habitual durophagy or to the consumption of hard foods only during periods when softer foods are not available, a so-called ?fallback? feeding strategy. This work more fully assesses enamel thickness in primates that are habitual vs. fallback hard-food consumers, asking whether there are differences in enamel thickness distribution and/or enamel prism orientation related to these two adaptations. Additionally, investigating potential developmental differences in the thick enamel of species that belong to different evolutionary lineages elucidates developmental pathways underlying enamel's ability to evolve over short evolutionary time spans. Finally, previous studies have suggested that in leaf-eating primates, selection for thin enamel constrains the evolution of enamel; this project more fully assesses this suggestion using a sample of leaf-eating primates with wide dietary variation. Altogether, research into these related questions elucidates selection pressures shaping overall enamel thickness, enamel thickness distribution, and enamel structure, providing insight into evolvability and constraint in these features. In turn, these insights will form a more robust foundation for paleoanthropological inference about dietary adaptation gleaned from tooth enamel.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Goals
(A) The overarching intellectual goal of this project was to further our understanding of how enamel and tooth form evolve in response to variation in primate diets and oral processing behavior. More specifically, the project goals were to investigate potential:
(1) Differences between habitual vs. fallback hard object feeders in enamel thickness distribution, tooth form, enamel growth processes, and enamel microstructure.
(2) Differences in molar form in colobines as related to the hardness of their diets.
(3) Relationships between hard object feeding and prism angles relative to wear surfaces.
(4) Relationships between enamel thickness and dietary abrasiveness as measured from phytolith load.
(B) The main broader goal of the project was to generate a large repository of micro CT scans of teeth from a large collection of Old World monkey remains collected from African field sites and housed in the Department of Anthropology at The Ohio State University. The original plan was to only microCT the teeth, but because microCT-ing required extraction of teeth from jaws, we realized we would lose information about relative dental development if that was not documented prior to extraction. Hence, before microCT-ing teeth, we made CT scabs of all the crania and mandibles from which we intended to extract teeth for microCT scanning, enhancing the broader goal to create a large, valuable image repository of this primate collection. Additional broader goals involved:
(1) Supporting female graduate research assistants, which is important to the goal of advancing women in paleoanthropology.
(2) Providing opportunities for undergraduates to participate in research, thus contributing to the development of a STEM workforce.
(3) Upgrading facilities for image processing and dental thin sectioning in the Department of Anthropology at Ohio State.
(4) Investing in local stakeholders by supporting local individuals working on the Tai Forest Monkey Project in Côte d’Ivoire.
(5) Disseminating research findings broadly.
Outcomes over the life of our project:
(1) Goal A1: Three papers on dental form in fallback vs. routine hard object feeders were published as a direct result of this research:
Guatelli‐Steinberg, D., Schwartz, G.T., O'Hara, M.C., Gurian, K., Rychel, J., McGraw, W.S., 2022. Molar form, enamel growth, and durophagy in Cercocebus and Lophocebus. American Journal of Biological Anthropology. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24592
Guatelli-Steinberg, D., Renteria, C., Grimm, J. R., Carpenter, I. M., Arola, D. D., & McGraw, W. S. (2023a). How mangabey molar form differs under routine vs. fallback hard-object feeding regimes. PeerJ, 11, e16534.
Guatelli-Steinberg, D., Gurian, K., & McGraw, W. S. (2023b). Differences in maxillary premolar form between Cercocebus and Lophocebus. Journal of Human Evolution, 186, 103467.
(2) Goal A2: A paper on the analysis of molar form in colobines was published:
Guatelli-Steinberg, D., Schwartz, G. T., O'Hara, M. C., Gurian, K., Rychel, J., Dunham, N., ... & McGraw, W. S. (2023). Aspects of molar form and dietary proclivities of African colobines. Journal of Human Evolution, 180, 103384.
(3) Goal A3: Dental thin sections were made for the prism angle analysis. These are currently being analyzes for an undergraduate honors thesis.
(4) Goal A4: Plant samples from the Tai Forest were organized and analyzed for phytoliths. A poster on this topic will be presented at the 2024 meeting of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists.
Broader Goals: The main broader goals, to establish a large collection of CTs, microCTs, and dental thin sections, as well as to upgrade lab facilities, were fully realized. Additional broader goals were accomplished.
1) Goals B1 and B2:
a. The grant supported the Ph.D. students Mackie O'Hara and Kaita Gurian, who honed their skills at processing scans with Dragonfly software, dental thin sectioning, and processing plants for phytolith analysis.
b) Jess Rychel, an undergraduate, worked on the project for two years using ImageJ to measure variables that were included in our published papers. Jess Rychel was ultimately admitted to medical school.
c) Mackie O'Hara, Kaita Gurian and Jess Rychel co-authored three abstracts using data from this grant that were presented at the American Association of Biological Anthropologists annual conference held in Denver in April of 2022.
d) Three side-projects making use of the McGraw primate skeletal collection were also completed. These involved Kate McGrath (an OSU Presidential Postdoctoral Scholar) and three additional undergraduates. Each undergraduate produced a first-authored abstract for presentation at the 2022 meeting of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists.
2) Goal B3: Facilities were upgraded and eventually, as a direct result of this project, the microCT scanner was transferred from the College of Dentistry to the Department of Anthropology.
3) Goal B4: Local individuals of working on the Tai Forest Monkey Project in the Ivory Coast collected plant samples for the phytolith analysis.
4) Goal B5: Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg further disseminated the results of this work by giving presentations at Otterbein Universitym the on-line Tooth Talks forum, and The School of Dentistry at Ohio State.
Last Modified: 02/29/2024
Modified by: Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg
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