Dr Wendy Dirks
Lecturer
- Email: wendy.dirks@ncl.ac.uk
- Telephone: +44 (0)191 222 7918
- Fax: 0191 222 6137
- Address: Oral Biology
School of Dental Sciences
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE2 4BW
RESEARCH WEBSITE
My research focuses on reconstructing dental development using incremental markers in dental hard tissues. I utilize polarized light microscopy to reconstruct the timing of dental development, which correlates with important life history variables such as weaning and first reproduction. I am currently working on a variety of mammals, from modern humans and nonhuman primates to extinct elephants. I am also working on several 55 million year old fossil species, including some of the earliest primates.
Research Interests
Dental hard tissue histology, life history evolution, vertebrate palaeontology.
Member of Oral Health Research Group: www.ncl.ac.uk/biomedicine/research/groups/dental.htm
Current Work
I am conducting research in several overlapping areas.
I am collaborating with Dr Khaled Khalaf, of Child Dental Health, in research with a focus on tooth morphology in patients with dental anomolies.
With colleagues from London, Durham, and the Institute of Health and Society, I am looking at how trace elements, such as lead and strontium, are incorporated into tooth enamel. The timing of their incorporation, as revealed by incremental growth lines in histological tooth sections, reveals environmental exposure, life history and stress.
I am conducting research into the evolution of life history and dental development in fossil mammals from the Paleocene and Eocene of North America with colleagues from the ESRF in France, Western Michigan University, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the University of California at Berkeley Museum of Paleontology in the USA. We are reconstructing the timing of growth and development in archaic ungulates and extant and fossil euarchontans, including early primates, through the analysis of growth increments in fossil enamel and dentine. This work is funded by the Royal Society.
I am also examining the timing of molar formation in fossil proboscideans in collaboration with Dr. Timothy Bromage of New York University College of Dentistry. We are developing a method for scaling life histories in extinct elephants in a manner similar to that used for the primate fossil record.
Selected Publications
- Dirks, W.; Anemone; R. L.; Holroyd, P. A.; Reid, D. J.; Walton, P. Phylogeny, life history and the timing of molar crown formation in two archaic ungulates, Meniscotherium and Phenacodus (Mammalia, “Condylarthra”). In: Koppe,T.; Meyer, G.; Alt, K. W, ed. Comparative Dental Morphology. Basel: Karger, 2009, pp. 3-8.
- Bromage, T. G, Lacruz, R. S, Hogg, R, Goldman, H. M, McFarlin, S. C, Warshaw, J, Dirks, W, Perez Ochoa, A, Smolyar, I, Enlow, D. H, Boyde, A. Lamellar bone is an incremental tissue reconciling enamel rhythms, body size, and organismal life history. Calcified Tissue International 2009.
- Anemone, RL; Dirks, W. An anachronistic mammalian fauna from the Late Paleocene of southwestern Wyoming. Geologica Acta 2009, 7(1-2), 113-124.
- Humphrey L; Dirks W; Dean M; Jeffries T. Tracking dietary transitions in weanling baboons (Papio hamadryas anubis) using strontium/calcium ratios in enamel. Folia Primatologica 2008, 79(4), 197-212.
- Dirks W, Bowman JE. Life history theory and dental development in four species of catarrhine primates. Journal of Human Evolution 2007, 53(3), 309-320.
- Dirks W. Effect of Diet on Dental Development in Four Species of Catarrhine Primates. American Journal of Primatology 2003, 61(1), 29-40.
Postgraduate Supervision
Co-supervisor (with Dr Nick Jepson and Dr Khaled Khalaf) for Ibrahim Al-Shahrani, Child Dental Health & Institute of Health & Society. PhD project title: 3D Geometric Morphometric Analysis of Hypodontia Subjects
Co-supervisor (with Professor Tanja Pless-Mulloli and Dr Susan Hodgson, Institute of Health and Society, and Professor Tom Shepherd, Earth Sciences, Durham University) for Charuwan Manmee, Institute of Health and Society. PhD project title: Lead levels in teeth as a measure of cumulative lead exposure in children.
Esteem Indicators
Associate Editor, Journal of Human Evolution
Guest speaker, Society of Gynecologic Investigation annual meeting, Glasgow, 2009.
Funding
Royal Society Research Grant: Dental development and life history in early primates from the Paleocene/Eocene boundary.
Roles and Responsibilities
Chair, BDS Stage 2 Part 1 Examinations Committee
Qualifications
PhD 2001, New York University
MA 1995, New York University
BA summa cum laude, 1991, Hunter College of the City University of New York
Previous Positions
Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Oxford College of Emory University, USA
Memberships
American Association of Physical Anthropologists
Association of Basic Science Teachers in Dentistry
British Society for Dental Research
Dental Anthropology Association
International Association for Dental Research
International Primatological Society
North of England Odontological Society
Primate Society of Great Britain
Society of Vertebrate Paleontologists
Undergraduate Teaching
BDS Programme, Stages 1 and 2 (Basic Sciences in Dentistry); Course Leader: Introduction to Dentistry, Teacher for Histology, Embryology and Development.
