Fossils show sweet tooth’s ancient roots

AMONG the fossils of our distant relatives, Edward Odes has discovered perhaps our most ancient of vices.

In the teeth of hominids he has found cavities, the telltale signs that they had a sweet tooth.

As with the cause of present-day tooth decay, Odes, of Wits University’s School of Anatomical Sciences, suspects a sugary diet was to blame.

Analysis of plaque taken from the teeth of a nearly two-million-year-old Australopithecus sediba has shown that they snacked on palm dates, a recognised dessert in many places across the world.

Tooth decay is not the only modern disease Odes has found in the record.

The one-time stock broker and banker is completing his PhD and has examined more than 2 000 fossils looking for traces of disease.

So far, he has been part of some interesting discoveries.

Recently, he and his team revealed the discovery of the earliest-known example of cancer in the human record.

The osteosarcoma was found on a 1.7-million-year-old foot bone that was excavated at Swartkrans, in the Cradle of Humankind. Osteosarcomas are still around today.

Then there was the bony tumour found on a sediba skeleton that probably left the individual partially paralysed. These finds were made using CT scans to examine the specimens.

Another common modern-day disease that left its mark on the bones is arthritis. The problem is that because the fossil record is not complete, it is difficult to ascertain if these individuals died as a result of their illnesses.

But it is also what is not on the bones that is interesting. So far, Odes has not found any signs of TB.

“This could show that TB is a recent arrival,” he said.