Norman, Okla.—The research of Christina Warinner, University of Oklahoma anthropology professor, will be featured in the January/February issue of Discover Magazine’s Top 100 Stories of 2014. Warinner’s research on ancient dental plaque was selected from an estimated 1 million science stories from around the world.

Discover Magazine ranks, “Medieval Dental Plaque Offers Dietary Clues,” at No. 69. In her recent studies in Nature Genetics and Nature Scientific Reports, Warinner and an international team investigated human dental plaque and found direct ancient DNA evidence of wheat, pork, mutton and Brassica (a plant belonging to the mustard family) consumption in Medieval Europe, and ancient protein evidence of cattle, sheep and goat milk consumption dating as far back as the European Bronze Age.

Warinner says these studies have far-reaching implications for understanding the relationship between diet and evolution. Read more about Warinner's studies at Nature.com. Warinner’s research has been published in the LA Times, Scientific American, Nature, Archaeology Magazine and other prestigious journals and top-tier publications.

Additionally, Warinner’s research will be featured in a series of articles published in a special issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society that resulted from a major symposium on “Ancient DNA:  the first three decades” at the Royal Society of London. These articles will be available online from Royal Society Publishing on December 8.

Click here for more information on Warinner’s research in Discover Magazine’s Top 100 Stories of 2014.