The National Center for Research on Human Evolution (CENIEH), organized the first tooth collection campaign held in Burgos in 2014 during the European Researchers' Night. This is a citizen science project coordinated by the Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit. ( UCC+i) and the Dental Anthropology Group (GAD) of CENIEH, in order to solve the difficulty of obtaining deciduous teeth for research, and to involve society in the same. With this idea in mind, the Ratón Pérez collection was born, a citizen scientific project whose aim is not only to create a reference collection to be used by scientists from various disciplines but also to involve society in such research through donations, encouraging vocations among schoolchildren.
From 2014 to 2017, the collection campaigns were only carried out in the city of Burgos. In the 2018 edition of the European Researchers' Night, eight more cities joined in, and since 2019 the project has involved eleven cities: Alcalá de Henares, Avilés, Barcelona, Burgos, Cáceres, Córdoba, Jaén, Madrid, Palma de Mallorca, Pontevedra and Santander, spread across nine Autonomous Communities. In 2020, due to the pandemic, only Burgos and Córdoba carried out the collection campaign. In 2021, eight institutions joined in again, and in 2022 the collection of teeth will continue throughout Spain and various institutions in Argentina and Australia have already joined this initiative. This international collaboration will make it possible to obtain deciduous teeth from different geographical areas, which will undoubtedly provide relevant information on the variability of our species.