Dental Wear in Evolutionary and Biocultural Contexts

Dr. Watson’s research examines health and disease in prehistoric populations through their skeletal remains. He is specifically interested in understanding prehistoric human adaptations in desert ecosystems and the role local resources play in the adoption of agriculture and their impact on health. His current projects involve the excavation and analysis of the earliest farmers in the Sonoran Desert and of incipient agriculturalists in the Atacama Desert, along the northern coast of Chile.

• 1. An Introduction to Dental Wear in Evolutionary and Biocultural Contexts2. Dental Macrowear in Catarrhine Primates: Variability Across Species3. Diet and Cultural Diversity in Neanderthals and Modern Humans from Dental Macrowear Analyses4. Macrowear and the Mechanical Behavior of Enamel5. The Interplay of Behavioral and Occlusal Etiologies in Aberrant Dental Wear6. Deconstructing Non-Carious Cervical Lesion on Teeth in Forensic Contexts7. Dental Microwear Texture Analysis in Bioarchaeology8. Dental Microwear Texture Analysis in Deciduous Teeth9. Stable Carbon Isotope and Molar Microwear Variability of South African Australopiths in Relation to Paleohabitats and Taxonomy10. Regional Variability in Diet Between Northern European and Mediterranean Neandertals: Evidence from Dental Microwear Texture Analysis11. Dental Microwear Texture Analyses of the Paleoamericans of Lagoa Santa, Central-Eastern Brazil