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Palaeoanthropology

What teeth tell us

Nature volume 530, pages 425–426 (2016)Cite this article

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Models based on developmental mechanisms described in mice and shared by most mammals are shown to accurately predict tooth size in extinct hominins, and can explain the small third molars in our species. See Letter p.477

The third molars of modern humans — those often-troublesome molars we sometimes call wisdom teeth — are frequently very small or do not even develop. By contrast, the third molars of other hominin species in our evolutionary tree were huge, with chewing surfaces that were two to four times larger than those in an average modern human. This profound change in tooth proportions is usually explained by dietary and cultural changes considered to be unique to our species. But on page 477 of this issue, Evans et al.1 offer an explanation that may make us feel rather less special. The authors propose that the evolution of our small third molars may be explained by basic developmental mechanisms that we share with most mammals.

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Figure 1: Predicting molar size.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, Aida Gómez-Robles is in the Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, Washington DC 20052, USA.,

    Aida Gómez-Robles

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  1. Aida Gómez-Robles
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Correspondence to Aida Gómez-Robles.

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Gómez-Robles, A. What teeth tell us. Nature 530, 425–426 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/530425a

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