Peter S. Ungar

Peter S. Ungar (born 1963) is an American paleoanthropologist and evolutionary biologist. He is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Environmental Dynamics program at the University of Arkansas. Before arriving at Arkansas he taught at the Johns Hopkins University 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 rain forests of Latin America and Southeast Asia, studied fossils from tyrannosaurids to Neandertals, and has 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 175 scientific works on ecology and evolution for books and journals including Science, 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 book, Mammal Teeth: Origin, Evolution and Diversity won the Association of American Publishers Award for best book in the Biological Sciences, and his more recently published popular science titles include Teeth: A Very Short Introduction and Evolution's Bite: A Story of Teeth, Diet, and Human Origins. 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.