I was entirely covered in frost following an Arctic hike!
Author: Harrison Lowe | Major: Biological Anthropology | Semester: January 2023 Intersession
Hello! I’m Harrison Lowe, a junior anthropology major with minors in African and African American Studies and geology. For my research, I’m studying the dental microwear patterns of reindeer teeth and its relationship to their diet/habitat in Arctic Finland. With an Honors Short Term Research Travel Grant, I traveled to Inari, Finland, a town 165 miles North of the Arctic Circle, with my mentor Dr. Peter Ungar and research partner Caroline Groves. It was an incredible experience! It was a successful research trip as we efficiently gathered suitable data, but even more so it was an incredible introduction to processes that go into biological and ecological research while being able to appreciate the Arctic landscape (we were able to see stunning Aurora Borealis!) as well as Laplandish culture.
A collection of a few hundred reindeer mandibles is what brought us to this town of about 600 people in the far Finnish North. For the duration of the week, we took dental impressions of the first and second mandibular molars. By the end, we had 3 gallon ziplock bags stuffed to the brim of molds of reindeer teeth. With this sizable dataset, we will analyze them under a high-powered microscope to look at microscopic scratches and pits that indicate diet variations between reindeer herding districts. It was an incredible week of data collection, and my first time collecting data for a large-scale research project. It was a tremendous learning experience, coming out of it with a better understanding of reindeer ecology and dentition. But moreover, the research experience was fundamental in understanding how to conduct proper and reliable biological and ecological research. Additionally, we were able to collaborate with some brilliant scientists. Among them were a few reindeer researchers as well as a paleoanthropologist who specializes in ruminant dentition. It was fascinating to be able to hear their given hypotheses on the reasons for the patterns of dental wear that the reindeer were exhibiting.
Outside of our time collecting data, we were able to see the beautiful Arctic Landscape. It was truly a unique experience as we arrived at the tail end of the long polar night. The sun didn’t reach above the horizon until the end of our stay. And while the sun technically didn’t ‘rise’, the time it was a little under the horizon gave us around 2 hours of daylight per day. We hiked and saw some rapids, walked on a frozen lake, visited a local museum of Samí history and culture, saw some absolutely bonkers Aurora Borealis, and I cross-country skied for the first time! It was a jam-packed week, and a truly unforgettable time.
This field experience was entirely formidable as I hope to continue researching in graduate school. I couldn’t have asked for better travel partners than Dr. Ungar and Caroline, and the mentorship Dr. Ungar has provided through my honors research thesis has been exceedingly valuable as I prepare for further research down the road. I couldn’t be more excited to see the results that come from the data we collected!