Publication Date

5-2024

Abstract

This dissertation examines early life environments and changes in skeletal and dental tissues by focusing on plasticity reflected in fluctuating asymmetry (FA). Chapter 2 shows that microscopic enamel defects on canines are associated with craniofacial FA in two colonial Mexican cemeteries. Chapters 3 and 4 use data from dental casts and associated health records from a 20th century longitudinal growth study. I compare dental FA in the deciduous (chapter 3) and permanent (chapter 4) dentition to sociocultural and environmental stressors. In their prenatal and childhood environments, females’ dental plasticity may be more responsive to frailty or chronic stresses while males may be more affected by comparatively acute stresses. Together, this research shows that the timing of stress exposures is critical to understanding how developmental systems respond to early life environments, and that such responses vary between males and females.

Keywords

odontometrics, deciduous dentition, permanent dentition, plasticity, developmental origins of health and disease

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Evolutionary Anthropology

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Anthropology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Heather JH Edgar

Second Committee Member

Melissa Emery Thompson

Third Committee Member

Christopher Kuzawa

Fourth Committee Member

Kathleen Paul

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