Richard Jantz facts for kids

Richard L. Jantz is an American scientist who studies people and their bodies. He is an anthropologist. He used to lead a research center at the University of Tennessee. Now, he is a professor there. His work helps us understand human bones, how bodies change, and even fingerprints. He also creates computer tools for this research. His studies have greatly helped the field of understanding human bodies and solving mysteries using bones.

One of his students was Douglas W. Owsley.

Early Life and Education

Richard Jantz grew up in a small town in Kansas. He went to college and then to the University of Kansas. There, he took a class with a famous anthropologist named Dr. William M. Bass. He earned his first degree in anthropology in 1962. He continued his studies and received his Ph.D. in anthropology in 1970. He quickly learned that he was very good at using math and statistics to study measurements.

Important Research

Dr. Jantz's research looks at how human bodies change over time. He studies measurements of bones and bodies from different groups of people. This includes Native American groups.

Studying Body Changes

In the early 1900s, a scientist named Franz Boas studied how people's bodies change. He looked at the measurements of children whose families moved to the United States. Boas found that these children's bodies became more like the average American body. He thought this showed that what you eat and where you live were more important than your family background in shaping your body. Many people believed his study showed that ideas about "race" and body measurements were not accurate.

In 2002, Dr. Jantz looked at Boas's study again. He was the first person to check if Boas's work was correct. Dr. Jantz studied bones from people who lived as far back as 10,000 years ago. He said that Boas's ideas about body changes between European and American-born children were not quite right. He found only small differences. He also said that living in America did not change the shape of the children's skulls. Dr. Jantz believed his work showed that Boas's ideas were wrong.

However, other scientists have disagreed with Dr. Jantz. Jonathan Marks, another well-known anthropologist, said that Jantz's review seemed "desperate." In 2003, other anthropologists, Clarence C. Gravlee, H. Russell Bernard, and William R. Leonard, looked at Boas's original information. They found that most of Boas's ideas were correct. They even used new computer tools to find more proof that skulls can change shape. They also said that Dr. Jantz and his team misunderstood what Boas was trying to say. They pointed out that Boas looked at how long the *mother* had been in the U.S. to see how it affected her child's skull. This is important because a baby's environment before birth is very important for its development.

Other Studies

Dr. Jantz also studies how small changes happen in groups of people. For example, he looked at Aleut and Eskimo groups near the Bering Sea. He uses body measurements to understand these changes.

He also helps create and keep up-to-date computer databases for research. These databases hold lots of information. They include body measurements of 15,000 ancient Native Americans. They also have information on 2,000 ancient people from Siberia. There are also databases with forensic data from 1,500 American skeletons. Another database has fingerprint patterns from 50,000 people around the world.

More recently, Dr. Jantz has studied the DNA of ancient Arikara sites in South Dakota. These sites were used between the years 1600 and 1832. His research shows that these people were similar to other Native American groups. This suggests that different groups mixed together in more recent times.

Another project is called the CT sexing project. This project aims to get better at telling if a skull belonged to a male or female. When the pelvis (hip bone) is not available, the skull is the next best way to guess a person's sex. Usually, this method is about 85-90% accurate. The CT sexing project uses CT scans of modern skeletons. This helps Dr. Jantz study differences between male and female skulls in more detail. This project is supported by the National Institute of Justice.

Dr. Jantz was also involved in the study of Kennewick Man. This ancient skeleton was found in Washington in 1996. It was about 9,000 years old. Dr. Jantz was one of eight scientists who went to court. They wanted to study Kennewick Man's remains more closely.

He also helped identify the crew members of the Confederate submarine Hunley. This submarine was found off the coast of South Carolina. Scientists used skeletal information and old records to identify the crew. They wanted to learn about the soldiers' lives on the submarine. They also looked for any injuries, poor nutrition, or sicknesses they might have had. The skeletons were well preserved. This allowed scientists to create facial reconstructions to show what the crew might have looked like.

Dr. Jantz has also reviewed evidence about the Nikumaroro bones. Scientists wondered if these bones belonged to the missing pilot Amelia Earhart.

Awards and Recognition

Dr. Jantz was recognized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was honored for his important work in creating databases and computer tools for studying human biology. In 2003, he received the Research and Creative Achievement Award from the University of Tennessee.