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Evolution's Bite: A Story of Teeth, Diet, and Human Origins
What teeth can teach us about the evolution of the human speciesWhether we realize it or not, we carry in our mouths the legacy of our evolution. Our teeth are like living fossils that can be studied and compared to those of our ancestors to teach us how we became human. In Evolution's Bite, noted paleoanthropologist Peter Ungar brings together for the first time cutting-edge advances in understanding human evolution and climate change with new approaches to uncovering dietary clues from fossil teeth to present a remarkable investigation into the ways that teeth—their shape, chemistry, and wear—reveal how we came to be.Ungar describes how a tooth's "foodprints"—distinctive patterns of microscopic wear and tear—provide telltale details about what an animal actually ate in the past. These clues, combined with groundbreaking research in paleoclimatology, demonstrate how a changing climate altered the food options available to our ancestors, what Ungar calls the biospheric buffet. When diets change, species change, and Ungar traces how diet and an unpredictable climate determined who among our ancestors was winnowed out and who survived, as well as why we transitioned from the role of forager to farmer. By sifting through the evidence—and the scars on our teeth—Ungar makes the important case for what might or might not be the most natural diet for humans.Traveling the four corners of the globe and combining scientific breakthroughs with vivid narrative, Evolution's Bite presents a unique dental perspective on our astonishing human development.
244 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 24, 2017
28 people are currently reading
751 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 1, 2017
I'm a bit biased, because I am studying teeth and jaw mechanics for my PhD, but this book was great! Provides a solid colloquial overview of the evolution of teeth and the history of the science of studying teeth. I really enjoyed the mix of Paleontology and Anthropology as well.
The ideas of selective pressure on teeth and diet in this book are very important. Might be a bit dry if you are not in the field.
The ideas of selective pressure on teeth and diet in this book are very important. Might be a bit dry if you are not in the field.
August 25, 2022
Quite a fascinating book about teeth, diets and evolution. It approaches the complexity of diets and their relationships with teeth heads on - and how the stories that link them are not so simple.
January 31, 2018
Some sagas of human origins tell readers what scientists discovered. Peter S. Ungar tells us how they discovered it, in Evolution’s Bite: A Story of Teeth, Diet, and Human Origins, his tale of the most common of human fossil remains – our teeth.
Less sexy than artistic reconstructions, or even iconic photographs of skeletons arranged against a black velvet background, teeth nevertheless have a lot of stories to tell. “They allow us to track changes from one species to the next to trace our evolutions,” Ungar writes. “We look to tooth size, shape, pattern of wear, and chemistry to work out details of the foods eaten by long-gone species. . . (and) the key to unlocking an extinct species’ place in nature.”
That’s the story Ungar has been chewing on for three decades, in travels around the world. From observations of the diets and ecology of modern primates – from monkeys to gorillas to present-day hunter-gatherers. From engineering analyses of the wear patterns of both fossil and modern teeth, to records of long term climate change embedded in the Greenland ice cap, to chemical signatures in the structure of teeth themselves, Evolution’s Bite ranges. Along the way, Ungar touches on the history of the journey, on the famous names (Mary and Louis Leakey of fossil “Lucy” fame) and the lesser knowns (the “Forrest Gump meets Indian Jones” story of swashbuckling geologist/explorer Raphael Pumpelly).
Some information upsets common assumptions. Mountain gorillas noted for the ability to utilize the tough plant foods for which they seem so well adapted will prefer to gobble soft, sugary fruits when those are available. Could the same phenomenon apply to fossil hominins?
Did early human guts compete with brains for the greater share of the energy available from our foods? Did we become dependent on the greater energy available from meat and cooked foods to make digestion less energy-expensive? (Ungar discusses this “expensive tissue” hypothesis while noting that some researchers have also called it into question.)
Most intriguing of all, Ungar touches on the dietary changes – and accompanying social changes – that finally made our species truly human. Was it hunting? Gathering? New tools to collect and process food? Cooking? The sharing of meals? Our diets – and the teeth that chew them – were intimately involved in all facets of the process.
Finally, what pushed now fully-human beings to free themselves from the constraints of the “biosphere buffet” spread by nature, taking charge of our evolution by planting crops and raising animals for our food.
“Humans had earned a living by hunting and gathering wild foods for 10,000 generations,” Ungar writes, “but in a just a few, brief millennia, food production sprung up across the globe. . . (beginning) a cascade of events that gave humanity its greatest accomplishments, from the peanut butter sandwich to the deep-space probe.”
Yes, Ungar does have a sense of humor. But listing peanut butter sandwiches as a major milestone effectively compresses thousands of years of plant breeding and food processing technology into a few words.
And, by the way, how do our dietary adaptions affect our current health, dental and otherwise? Ungar’s advice, as always, is something to chew on.
Less sexy than artistic reconstructions, or even iconic photographs of skeletons arranged against a black velvet background, teeth nevertheless have a lot of stories to tell. “They allow us to track changes from one species to the next to trace our evolutions,” Ungar writes. “We look to tooth size, shape, pattern of wear, and chemistry to work out details of the foods eaten by long-gone species. . . (and) the key to unlocking an extinct species’ place in nature.”
That’s the story Ungar has been chewing on for three decades, in travels around the world. From observations of the diets and ecology of modern primates – from monkeys to gorillas to present-day hunter-gatherers. From engineering analyses of the wear patterns of both fossil and modern teeth, to records of long term climate change embedded in the Greenland ice cap, to chemical signatures in the structure of teeth themselves, Evolution’s Bite ranges. Along the way, Ungar touches on the history of the journey, on the famous names (Mary and Louis Leakey of fossil “Lucy” fame) and the lesser knowns (the “Forrest Gump meets Indian Jones” story of swashbuckling geologist/explorer Raphael Pumpelly).
Some information upsets common assumptions. Mountain gorillas noted for the ability to utilize the tough plant foods for which they seem so well adapted will prefer to gobble soft, sugary fruits when those are available. Could the same phenomenon apply to fossil hominins?
Did early human guts compete with brains for the greater share of the energy available from our foods? Did we become dependent on the greater energy available from meat and cooked foods to make digestion less energy-expensive? (Ungar discusses this “expensive tissue” hypothesis while noting that some researchers have also called it into question.)
Most intriguing of all, Ungar touches on the dietary changes – and accompanying social changes – that finally made our species truly human. Was it hunting? Gathering? New tools to collect and process food? Cooking? The sharing of meals? Our diets – and the teeth that chew them – were intimately involved in all facets of the process.
Finally, what pushed now fully-human beings to free themselves from the constraints of the “biosphere buffet” spread by nature, taking charge of our evolution by planting crops and raising animals for our food.
“Humans had earned a living by hunting and gathering wild foods for 10,000 generations,” Ungar writes, “but in a just a few, brief millennia, food production sprung up across the globe. . . (beginning) a cascade of events that gave humanity its greatest accomplishments, from the peanut butter sandwich to the deep-space probe.”
Yes, Ungar does have a sense of humor. But listing peanut butter sandwiches as a major milestone effectively compresses thousands of years of plant breeding and food processing technology into a few words.
And, by the way, how do our dietary adaptions affect our current health, dental and otherwise? Ungar’s advice, as always, is something to chew on.
December 2, 2018
Excellent book about the evolution of our jaws, teeth, and out diet. I read some reviews where they said it was dry, I absolutely loved it. Would have read it in a shorter period of time, but I was pausing to rake notes. Well written and in the end has some very good discussion on our present diets and how it affects us and also how the paleo diet is non-sensical. 🤓
August 31, 2017
A decent read about the evolution of teeth. If you're interested in paleoanthropology or human evolution, then this is a good book. If not, then there are plenty other books to read.
June 2, 2018
Non-fiction that tells the story of human evolution from the point of view of our teeth. This is less silly than it may sound; teeth, being harder than bones, preserve extremely well in the fossil record and we often have more teeth from an extinct species than any other part of them. In addition, the shape and wear of teeth can tell us a lot about the diet of a species – just imagine how different the teeth of a lion look from those of a cow. Ungar gives the reader the basics of the topic, explaining the history and methods of studying teeth. He's got plenty of examples of modern primates and their teeth, from gorillas to lemurs to little monkeys. But of all this is in the service of learning more about where we came from, and what drove our evolution – climate change? predators? stone tools? Most of the book covers early human evolution, giving a close look at the teeth of species like Paranthropus bosei, Homo habilis, and the Australopithecines (better known as the genus that includes "Lucy"). However, two chapters at the end cover the invention of farming and the post-Industrial diet (with its abundance of sugar and soft, processed foods) on modern humans' jaws and teeth.
It's an interesting topic, but unfortunately Ungar's writing style is extremely dry and academic. I could hardly get through a page without finding my attention had wandered and I needed to reread the last paragraph. I'm all for introducing the details of human evolution and how we learned them to a general audience, but books like that need authors who can capture an audience and hold it. Ungar isn't up to the task.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
It's an interesting topic, but unfortunately Ungar's writing style is extremely dry and academic. I could hardly get through a page without finding my attention had wandered and I needed to reread the last paragraph. I'm all for introducing the details of human evolution and how we learned them to a general audience, but books like that need authors who can capture an audience and hold it. Ungar isn't up to the task.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
January 17, 2018
I study dental microwear and am an anatomy professor, so this is not only right up my alley but also something that may bias my interpretation, but here goes:
1) excellent introduction to human evolutionary dental biology
2) mixed in with plenty of relatable and important historical background
3) a wide range of topics relevant to concerns people generally have today, not just the science behind nuances of evolution
Criticism? It could be clearer that the history shared in this is biased by the author's personal experiences. There are many others that contributed important work toward many of the same ideas and they are not mentioned, and likely because of the people the author interacted with more as a student of anthropology in the 90s. That's perfectly reasonable, but it would be ideal for readers to be warned that those advances were not made solely by the few people named in the text.
1) excellent introduction to human evolutionary dental biology
2) mixed in with plenty of relatable and important historical background
3) a wide range of topics relevant to concerns people generally have today, not just the science behind nuances of evolution
Criticism? It could be clearer that the history shared in this is biased by the author's personal experiences. There are many others that contributed important work toward many of the same ideas and they are not mentioned, and likely because of the people the author interacted with more as a student of anthropology in the 90s. That's perfectly reasonable, but it would be ideal for readers to be warned that those advances were not made solely by the few people named in the text.
August 17, 2020
Only a couple hundred pages long, but it took me ten months to finish Evoluton's Bite. Lots of interesting detail that does not form a clear overall narrative and is difficult to summarize. Things sort of come together in the final chapter describing human evolution near the end of the last ice age some 12,000 years ago. The argument is that the climate change at that time drove humans to begin domesticating plants (grains). This dietary change even drives the evolution of the human jaw today (smaller and less robust).
New Ideas: 1. The Biospheric Buffet-the range of food choices at any point in time and place. 2. The end of the last ice age was amazingly abrupt - about 4 decades!
New Ideas: 1. The Biospheric Buffet-the range of food choices at any point in time and place. 2. The end of the last ice age was amazingly abrupt - about 4 decades!
July 28, 2020
A truly interdisciplinary look at what teeth tell us about human evolution, told with verve. See my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2017...
September 10, 2019
“一提起自然界中的食物选择，我的脑海里就会想象出整个生物圈。地球的生物圈就像是一个巨大的自助餐厅，滋养其间的无数生命。动物们手拿餐盘，径直走向摆放食物的餐桌。它们会拿些什么呢？这不仅取决于他们手中的餐具，也得看他们走到餐桌时还剩下什么东西。”
April 16, 2020
a tasty morsel. the better to eat you with my dear. engaging.
September 7, 2023
Too good. Ungar totally loves his job and he has put in all his heart in this intriguing aspect of evolution.
January 29, 2019
Book I wanted to read for a long time. Very interesting and well written. Deals with human evolution and homo genus development via the prism of teeth. A side to evolution that as a biology graduate i had not heard of before. Great read!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews