Cuozzo looks at lemur teeth for climate change clues

UND anthropologist Frank Cuozzo heads for his eighth year of field research on lemurs in their only natural habitat: the forests of Madagascar. Lemurs—named after Roman mythological ghosts—may shed a big light on climate change and its environmental impacts.

Cuozzo, working with an interdisciplinary, international, multi-institution team, heads to Madagascar on a $199,000 National Science Foundation grant he received last year to continue his work on primate dental ecology.

“The phrase describes the interaction between teeth and the environment, and it shows us ways that animals, specifically primates, reflect environmental change,” Cuozzo said.

This challenging and sometimes daunting research aims to correlate lemur dental wear with changes in diet that may be prompted by changes in the mostly forest environment that the lemurs live in.

Such research  can have a dramatic impact in the classroom, Cuozzo said.

“I teach what I do, and students find it compelling to hear what I do and how I do it,” Cuozzo said. “It’s about making science real.”

Cuozzo and his teammates will be in Madagascar until August—June-August is the perfect time for such work, he said, because it’s winter there, and it doesn’t rain so much.

For the complete story on Cuozzo’s upcoming scientific adventure in Madagascar, see http://www2.und.nodak.edu/our/news/story.php?id=3104