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November 13, 2006
Teeth as the "Black Box" of the Body
When an airplane crashes, the hunt is on for the black box, to descrive the events surrounding whatever went wrong. In today's news are highlights of how teeth can provide detailed information about diet even thousands of years later, through the use of laser ablation. This leads to the analogy of the teeth as the "black box" of the body, a primary resource for information about how or why individuals and species failed or survived.
"Nearly 100 percent inorganic, they resist fossilization and retain carbon deposits that can be traced back to specific edibles. Teeth are veritable black boxes of information."
Philadelphia Enquirer 11/13/06: Ancestral cousin gets an enlightening dental: Two-million-year-old P. robustus of southern Africa wasn't just a vegetarian, teeth show. http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/magazine/daily/15998062.htm
Posted by pfa at November 13, 2006 09:49 AM