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Evolution's bite : a story of teeth, diet, and human origins / Peter S. Ungar

By: Publisher: Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2017]Copyright date: ©2017Description: ix, 236 pages : illustrations ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780691160535
  • 0691160538
Subject(s): Genre/Form: DDC classification:
  • 599.9/43 23
LOC classification:
  • GN281.4 .U54 2017
NLM classification:
  • 2017 F-512
  • GN 281.4
Contents:
Introduction -- How teeth work -- How teeth are used -- Out of the garden -- Our changing world -- Foodprints -- What made us human -- The Neolithic revolution -- Victims of our own success
Summary: 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

Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-228) and index

Introduction -- How teeth work -- How teeth are used -- Out of the garden -- Our changing world -- Foodprints -- What made us human -- The Neolithic revolution -- Victims of our own success

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

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