Christina Warinner | The Scientist: Ancient Dental Plaque Unearths Prehistoric People’s Lifestyle
The Department of Anthropology at Harvard University is pleased to share a new publication from The Scientist magazine, which features the research of Archaeology Professor and Program Director Christina Warinner.
Millennia ago, when ancient people did not know what toothbrushes were, food particles and microbes clung stubbornly to their teeth. These plaques mineralized over time to form crusty, hard tartar.
Centuries later, scientists discovered that this calcified tartar was a goldmine of preserved ancient DNA.1 “It is like time travel in many ways,” said Christina Warinner, a biomolecular archeologist at Harvard University and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
Over the last few years, Warinner and her team isolated DNA from the tartar of excavated human remains and dug up a lost microbial world. Reconstructing ancient oral microbiomes revealed patterns of microbial diversity and identified bacterial enzymes produced thousands of years ago, offering a glimpse into prehistoric people’s health and lives.