Tanya Smith, Ph.D. is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, and an Associated Scientist in the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Her current research is on dental development and three-dimensional tooth structure in fossil and living apes and humans.
Tanya’s research centers on three main themes:
- What is the fundamental nature of dental microstructure?
- How does dental development and tooth structure vary within and among primate species?
- How can information from dental development and tooth structure inform studies of primate evolution, growth and development?
Current projects include:
- Neanderthal and early Homo sapiens tooth development and life history.
- Variation in chimpanzee dental development.
- Evolutionary developmental biology of Asian hominoids.
- Integration of non-destructive structural and developmental methods for reconstructing tooth growth.
