Morphological dental characteristics are of crucial importance for the taxonomic classification of fossil human remains. However, these have primarily been examined using traditional methods to date, whereas detailed 3D scanning techniques from the field of virtual anthropology are rarely employed. 
This project combines traditional and state-of-the-art analytical methods to 
1) better understand the range of variation in tooth shapes among modern humans, as well as the influence of population history, diet/subsistence, and environmental factors on this variation, and to 
2) apply this newly generated knowledge to the taxonomic classification of previously reclassified individuals of later Homo species.