The Raton Pérez Collection Awards were presented today at an event chaired by the Mayor of Burgos, Cristina Ayala Santamaría, and by María Martinón Torres, Director of the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH). The aim of which was to pay tribute to the children who have contributed the most to the creation of this collection through their donations to tooth collection campaigns.

During the event, which had Sign Language Interpretation (ILSE) thanks to the collaboration with the Association of Families of Deaf People of Burgos, the mayor of Burgos highlighted the importance of citizen science in a city like Burgos, which is the capital of human evolution studies. The director of CENIEH thanked donors from all over Spain for their support of this project, since without them it would not have been possible to create the largest collection of milk teeth in the world.

These awards, consisting of a commemorative sculpture and a gift set provided by the Casita Museo del Ratón Pérez, feature four categories: the award for the donor participating in the most campaigns, the donor contributing the most teeth, the donor with the most molars, and the institution most committed to the project. 

The award for the donor participating in the most campaigns was presented to Iria Queiruga Juez by the Director of CENIEH and the mayor of Burgos; the award for the donor contributing the most teeth was given to Sofía García Esteban by Alberto Navarro García, Director of the Institutional Centre of Castilla y León, and Natalia Díez Simancas, head of Social Action at CaixaBank. The award for the donor with the most molars was presented to Íñigo Cerdá Esteban by Leslea Hlusko and Marina Martínez de Pinillos, researchers from the Dental Anthropology Group at CENIEH.

There was also an award for the Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit of the Universidad de Córdoba as the most committed entity, for its unconditional support for the Ratón Pérez Collection, even during the pandemic. This award was presented by Chitina Moreno-Torres, head of UCC+I at CENIEH.

All the winners got to see the laboratories where the teeth are analyzed and the spaces where they are preserved, including the vault that houses human fossils.

More than 5,000 teeth

The Ratón Pérez Collection was launched in 2014 to develop a comparative sample of worldwide importance of milk teeth for the purposes of research in paleoanthropology, anthropology and forensics and already has more than 5,000 teeth.

More than 2,500 boys and girls aged from 2 to 15 at the time of tooth loss have participated in this citizen science project. Most donors are from Spain, although other countries like Australia, China, France, Italy, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Dominican Republic and Russia are also represented.

The Ratón Pérez Collection project started thanks to the support of Obra Social "la Caixa" and the Fundación Caja de Burgos and later, Fundación "La Caixa" through CaixaBank. The Casita Museo del Ratón Pérez has also been essential to this project, providing unwavering support over the past ten years. It also currently enjoys the collaboration of the Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología (FECTY) – Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades.