Peter Ungar
Encyclopedia
Peter S. Ungar is an American paleoanthropologist and evolutionary biologist. He is Distinguished Professor and Chairman of Anthropology
at the University of Arkansas
. Before arriving at Arkansas he taught at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
and the Duke University Medical Center.
Ungar is known primarily for his work on the role of diet in human evolution
. He has spent thousands of hours observing wild apes and other primates in the rainforest of Latin America and Southeast Asia, studied fossils from tyrannosaurids to Neandertals, and developed new techniques for using advanced surface analysis technologies to tease information about diet from tooth shape and patterns of use wear.
Ungar has written or coauthored more than 100 scientific papers on ecology
and evolution
for books and journals including Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. These have focused on food choices and feeding in living primates, and the role of diet in the evolution of human ancestors and other fossil species. His most recent book, Mammal Teeth: Origin, Evolution and Diversity was published in 2010, and he edited Evolution of the Human Diet: The Known, the Unknown and the Unknowable and coedited Human Diet: Its Origins and Evolution.
Ungar’s work has been featured in hundreds of electronic, print, and broadcast media outlets, and he appeared recently in documentaries on the Discovery Channel, BBC Television, and the Science Channel.
Selected Publications
External links
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
at the University of Arkansas
University of Arkansas
The University of Arkansas is a public, co-educational, land-grant, space-grant, research university. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a research university with very high research activity. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and is located in...
. Before arriving at Arkansas he taught at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine , located in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., is the academic medical teaching and research arm of Johns Hopkins University. Hopkins has consistently been the nation's number one medical school in the amount of competitive research grants awarded by the National...
and the Duke University Medical Center.
Ungar is known primarily for his work on the role of diet in human evolution
Human evolution
Human evolution refers to the evolutionary history of the genus Homo, including the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species and as a unique category of hominids and mammals...
. He has spent thousands of hours observing wild apes and other primates in the rainforest of Latin America and Southeast Asia, studied fossils from tyrannosaurids to Neandertals, and developed new techniques for using advanced surface analysis technologies to tease information about diet from tooth shape and patterns of use wear.
Ungar has written or coauthored more than 100 scientific papers on ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
and evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
for books and journals including Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. These have focused on food choices and feeding in living primates, and the role of diet in the evolution of human ancestors and other fossil species. His most recent book, Mammal Teeth: Origin, Evolution and Diversity was published in 2010, and he edited Evolution of the Human Diet: The Known, the Unknown and the Unknowable and coedited Human Diet: Its Origins and Evolution.
Ungar’s work has been featured in hundreds of electronic, print, and broadcast media outlets, and he appeared recently in documentaries on the Discovery Channel, BBC Television, and the Science Channel.
Selected Publications
- Ungar, P.S.; Grine, F.E.; Teaford, M.F. Dental microwear indicates that Paranthropus boisei was not a hard-object feeder. Public Library of Science (PLoS), ONE, 3(4), e2044:1-6, 2008.
- Ungar, P.S. Strong teeth, strong seeds. Nature, 452:703-705, 2008.
- Ungar, P.S.; Grine, F.E.; Teaford, M.F. Diet in early Homo: A review of the evidence and a new model of adaptive versatility. Annual Review of Anthropology, 35: 209-228, 2006.
- Scott, R.S.; Ungar, P.S.; Bergstrom, T.S.; Brown, C.A.; Grine, F.E.; Teaford, M.F.; Walker, A. Dental microwear texture analysis reflects diets of living primates and fossil hominins. Nature, 436: 693-695, 2005.
- Ungar, P.S. Dental topography and diets of Australopithecus afarensis and early Homo. Journal of Human Evolution, 46: 605-622, 2004.
External links