Doctoral Dissertation Research: Prevalence and preservation of dental calculus at the National Museum of Natural History: Implications for biomolecular preservation in museums

本博士论文研究将评估历史决策过程对史密森学会国家自然历史博物馆（NMNH）生物人类学藏品的影响。除了是曾经生活的人群的快照，生物人类学收藏是过去人类学家收集管理策略的宝贵资料库。这些遗产和决定，就像NMNH的Ales Hrdlicka所做的那样，改变了博物馆中人类遗骸收藏的形成、加入和照顾的方式。了解藏品在过去是如何被处理的，将有助于博物馆对破坏性取样请求做出明智的决定，使研究人员能够优化研究设计，并有助于用现代科学方法（例如DNA测序）建立博物馆护理标准。该项目将通过史密森奖学金项目和奥斯汀博士的论文研究为本科生提供培训机会，为STEM教育做出贡献。此外，公众将参与NMNH的“专家在”系列演讲、NMNH的演讲和俄克拉荷马大学的部门演讲等活动。为了研究改变收藏护理策略对生物人类学收藏的影响，本项目将重点研究牙结石（钙化斑块）中的生物分子（DNA）保存。从人类学收集的牙石已被用来解决有关健康，饮食和人口动态的重要问题。然而，牙结石的发展和保存在不同人群中的差异尚未得到充分的研究。通过考虑来自具有时间和地理代表性的藏品的多种证据（即古代DNA测序，骨骼和形态数据以及档案信息），本研究将探讨1)环境因素如何影响牙结石的形成；2)过去生物人类学家的藏品护理决策如何影响藏品的长期储存。作为世界领先的博物馆，NMNH提供了具有空间和时间深度的非凡藏品，以实现这两个目标，并将为世界各地的其他藏品提供有价值的信息。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This doctoral dissertation research will assess the impact of historical decision-making processes on the Biological Anthropology collections at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). In addition to being snapshots of once living populations, biological anthropology collections are valuable repositories of past anthropologists' collection management strategies. The legacies and decisions, like ones made by Ales Hrdlicka at the NMNH, changed how collections of human remains were formed, accessioned, and cared for in museums. Understanding how collections were treated in the past will help museums make informed decisions about destructive sampling requests, allow researchers to optimize study design, and help to establish museum care standards with modern scientific methods (e.g. DNA sequencing) in mind. This project will contribute to STEM education by providing training opportunities for undergraduates through the Smithsonian Fellowship Program and Co-PI Austin's dissertation research. Additionally, the public will be engaged at events like the "Expert Is In" talk series at the NMNH, presentations at the NMNH and department presentations at the University of Oklahoma.To investigate the impact of changing collection care strategies on biological anthropology collections, this project will focus on biomolecular (DNA) preservation in dental calculus (calcified plaque). Dental calculus from anthropological collections has been used to address important questions concerning the health, diet, and population dynamics of past peoples. However, variation in dental calculus development and preservation across human populations is underexplored. By taking into consideration multiple lines of evidence (i.e. ancient DNA sequencing, skeletal and morphological data, and archival information) from temporally and geographically representative collections, this study will investigate 1) how environmental factors contribute to dental calculus formation and 2) how collection care decisions by past biological anthropologists have affected the long-term storage of collections. As a world-leading museum, the NMNH offers extraordinary collections with spatial and temporal depth to address these two objectives and will provide valuable information to other collections around the world.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.