the mysteries behind our teeth- chapter 4

In this chapter Shubin really focuses on his first expeditions as an archaeologist and how teeth are really what began his career. It's crazy to think about how much of an organism we can tell just by looking at their teeth; their diet and eating habits to perhaps even the structure of the rest of their body can be unfolded by the findings of an animal's jaw. This to me is really interesting because I can apply it to humans and understand the significance of a single tooth when I understand how it works in myself. For example, our diet as human beings is so diverse that our teeth need to share this diversity and variation as well; we have teeth for cutting and tearing, chewing and grinding, and even biting and clamping that are all connected by a hinged jaw. This variation in our teeth allow us to successfully have that variation paralleled in our food as well. The part I liked the best about this chapter was when Shubin had no idea that on his first expedition he would find a rare creature that told its own unique story just through its teeth. I enjoyed his excitement when he was lucky enough to have such a qualified team and actually took home something more than rocks, or the part when he first gained his "fossil-finding" eyes and was looking at a completely different world. I also found it interesting that the first real body structure such as bone originated from teeth; I definitely take them for granted because I had no idea how important the presence of teeth was. I mean they're responsible for spinal cords and breasts for crying out loud! The theme of this chapter definitely ties in with the rest in Shubin's ability to enforce the idea of where our roots come from, and that we didn't just appear but instead we can trace ourselves through each and every creature and find a glimpse of our past, one of those windows being our teeth. You gotta have respect for those little guys :]