A morphological study of retromolar foramen and retromolar canal of modern and medieval population.

Retromolar foramen (RMF) is small external orifice of the retromolar canal (RMC), located in the retromolar region of the mandible. Knowledge about the location of the retromolar foramen and the route of the retromolar canal within the mandible is significant for clinical practice due to a high risk of injury during oral and caniomaxillofacial surgery. In this study, the authors analysed 100 cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans of the modern people's retromolar region and 26 scans of samples from the medieval population.

Searching for signals of recent natural selection in genes of the innate immune response - ancient DNA study.

The last decade has seen sharp progress in the field of human evolutionary genetics and a great amount of genetic evidence of natural selection has been provided so far. Since host-pathogen co-evolution is difficult to trace due to the polygenic nature of human susceptibility to microbial diseases, of particular interest is any signal of natural selection in response to the strong selective pressure exerted by pathogens. Analysis of ancient DNA allows for the direct insight into changes of a gene pool content over time and enables monitoring allele frequency fluctuations.

Dental caries and chemical analyses in reconstruction of diet, health and hygienic behaviour in the Middle Euphrates valley (Syria).

Objectives: The aim of this study was to use two methods, biological and chemical, to examine changes in diet and health in individuals from the Middle Euphrates valley (Syria). We determined the frequency distribution of dental caries. Chemical analyses were concerned with the presence of elements such as strontium, barium, calcium and stable carbon isotopes ((13)C/(14)C).