The Evolution Of Teeth, And Our Diet w/ Peter Ungar

Hello, everybody! This Monday, I bring you an interview with Dr. Peter S. Ungar. He is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Director of Environmental Dynamics at the University of Arkansas. His research focuses on paleoecology and teeth. He’s the author of books like Mammal Teeth, Evolution’s Bite, and of textbooks like Human Diet: Its Origin and Evolution.

In this episode, we focus on the evolution of teeth. We discuss how anthropologists study teeth and how they are used. We address the important distinction between what an animal can eat and the types of foods it has available. We talk a little bit about the evolutionary origins of teeth. Dr. Ungar refers to the study of tartar, that began very recently. We also talk about how we can reconstruct diets and environments from teeth. We then refer to the evolutionary mismatch posed by our modern human diets, and the kinds of oral health problems that derive from that. In the end, we also talk about the problems with arguments coming from veganism and the paleo diet about our diets.

https://youtu.be/Mg5Ff_7gTLw

Link to podcast version (Anchor): http://bit.ly/2Mo9gx7