G. Richard Scott: Global variation in third molar agenesis
Title
Global variation in third molar agenesis
Mentor
Department
Biosketch
- Richard Scott, Ph.D., is a foundation professor in the Department of Anthropology at the Βι¶ΉΣ³». He earned his bachelor of arts and doctoral degrees in anthropology at Arizona State University. After completing his degree in 1973, he taught at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks from 1973 to 1997. After a short-lived retirement, he resumed his academic career at the Βι¶ΉΣ³» in 2001. His specialty is dental anthropology, with a focus on human tooth crown and root morphology. He has written or edited five books in this area, including The Anthropology of Modern Human Teeth (1997), which came out as a second edition in 2018. Geographically, he has worked in the American Southwest, Alaska, the North Atlantic, Spain and Hungary.
Project overview
A common misconception is that the frequency of missing third molars (wisdom teeth) is increasing in modern human populations because of the reliance on softer, more easily masticated foods and associated trend toward decreased jaw size. This research aims to dispel this misconception by detailing world variation in missing third molars using the global dental dataset of Christy G. Turner II.
PREP students will be expected to:
- Familiarize themselves with the literature on third molar agenesis, including genetic studies that propose how this trait is inherited
- Tabulate the frequencies of pegged-missing-reduced third molars from several hundred data sheets from samples on all continents of the world
- Write up the results in standard scientific journal and under mentor’s supervision, submit the article for publication in a major anthropological or dental journal.
Throughout this process, students will learn how to search literature that addresses a specific problem using Google Scholar, Web of Science, etc., formulate and test hypotheses, tabulate and analyze quantitative data, and construct a scientific article and submit it for review. Interested students should have basic writing skills, basic math skills, and an ability to focus and attend to small details in tabulating data.
Pack Research Experience Program information and application