The Sixth "Ratón Pérez" Tooth Collection Campaign, which the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) has been organizing in Burgos since 2014 thanks to the sponsorship of Obra Social “la Caixa” and the Fundación Caja de Burgos, will count on the collaboration of institutions from nine Spanish Autonomous Regions on this sixth occasion: Andalucía, Asturias, Baleares, Cantabria, Castilla y León, Cataluña, Extremadura, Galicia and Madrid.

Once again this year, adults and children can donate their milk teeth in exchange for a souvenir and a certificate of having assisted "Ratón Pérez" and the Dental Anthropology Group of the CENIEH, on European Researchers' Night, which will be held on Friday September 27th.

On that date, institutions from all over Spain will be responsible for collecting dental pieces: the CENIEH, from 6 to 10 pm, in Burgos; ADEMA, from 6 to 8 pm, in Palma de Mallorca; the Universidad de Alcalá, from 5 to 8.30 pm, in Alcalá de Henares; the Universidad de Cantabria, from 6.30 to 10 pm, in Santander; the Universidad de Córdoba, from 7 pm to midnight, in Córdoba; the Universidad de Extremadura, from 6 to 9 pm, in Cáceres; the Universidad de Jaén, from 5 to 10 pm, in Jaén; the Universidad de Oviedo, from 6 to 8 pm, in Avilés, and the Casita Museo del Ratón Pérez, from 5 to 8.30 pm, in Madrid.

The Sincrotrón Alba, in Barcelona, already collected teeth on June 29th, coinciding with the Open Day of that Unique Scientific and Technical Infrastructure (ICTS), and it will collaborate with the CENIEH again next year. For its part, the CSIC office in Galicia will conduct its collection of teeth on November 30th, during the Galician Cultural Industries Fair (Feira das Industrias Culturais Galegas, CULTURGAL) to be held in Pontevedra.

The objective of these Campaigns, coordinated by Dr. Marina Martínez de Pinillos González together with the researchers Cecilia García Campos and Ana Pantoja Pérez, is to gather one of the most important reference collections of teeth in the world, for both studies in human evolution and forensic work.

“Thanks to the donors, we can obtain very useful data for our research, such as the age at which the tooth was lost, the sex of the individual, their place of birth and that of their parents and grandparents, among other information”, says Martínez de Pinillos.