Hey, is this your tooth?

Wow teeth, a chapter about teeth. Ha i guess by reading my first sentence you could tell my overall feelings for this chapter, right? Well just like Shubin I'll change my mood and say I liked this chapter.
At the beginning of the chapter Shubin opens his discussion about teeth with an interesting statement " The tooth gets short shrift in anatomy class: we spend all of five minutes on it." I think this is interesting because he wrote the book yet by the tone and mood presented it sounds as though he isn't all that thrilled with the subject of teeth. But then he contradicts his initial mood by stating that " it is virtually impossible to understand our bodies without knowing teeth." I liked this chapter because even though Shubin tries not to be confusing, if the first paragraph is over looked then the entire chapter's meaning is complicated, meaning that Shubin really forces you to play attention.
Since i stated my overall mood, i guess ill give a quick summary on the chapter. It turns out Shubin was an amateur paleontologist at one point in his life, and by amateur i mean someone who had no skills what so ever in finding bones because he over looked many of the tiny but detailed formations on the floor. But as time passed, thanks to his partner, Chuck, he was more able to see a different world, one where fossils and animal remains could easily be found. After he describes his first archaeological experience, he begins talking about the different types of species with their different types of teeth. He states that some have sharp teeth made for piercing the prey, others have some sharp incisors and dull back teeth for chewing. After his quick statement about the different types of teeth he begins talking about another one of his experiences, but this one taking part at a beach shore. He said that he intended to excavate the shore but the tide was too high and so he searched for fossils by a volcano. There he had no hope of finding fossils but to his surprise they found a "tritheledont", which had mammalian traits.
I wonder if Shubin included his experiences and results in order to illustrate the idea that through teeth ones body is further understood. Meaning that all of these experiences shaped his life, such as an animal's teeth would be shaped through the food they eat. Thus making Shubin's experiences his food and his life his teeth.