Chapter 4: Teeth Everywhere

The first thing that I thought of when Shubin started talking about teeth was the television show Bones. In the show the scientists use the teeth to identify some of the murder victims and shows us much information about the person. It surprised me at first when he said that teeth are not well liked nor discussed by some. I would like to believe that teeth are more important than how he portrays them yet I am unaware of the true statistics of it.

It was unaware to me that teeth could macerate. Teeth seem to be very well needed in the paleontology area. From one tooth a paleontologist can tell whether or not the animal was a carnivore or a herbivore. This information could be very useful in a field where all you are working with is bones and scraps from millions of years ago.

Reptiles seem to have very different teeth than other mammals and fish do. With all there teeth so sharp and not aligned it would seem as though there teeth would almost hurt when they need (not that I would like to investigate on that). It is remarkable that reptiles are constantly replacing there teeth. IT makes me think as to how this process would occur. If their "old" teeth need to be pushed out in order for their "new" teeth to come in, how often does this process occur? Or does this come from different years in their life? This fact though would be very useful for reptiles since they are in constantly using their teeth in order to eat food that may wear down the sharpness of their teeth from time to time.

When Shubin is talking about Farish's team and how just by reading scientific articles and books they could predict where would be a good site or not is unreal to me. I thought that there would be more... more something. More research, more details, more information that would enable a team of scientists to go and work, but I assume that Farish's team is at the top of their game (or their prediction methods are just a hyperbole made by Shubin in order to show Farish's skills).

It made me feel really excited for Shubin when he found his first tooth in the rock. He described his struggles so fully that I could really relate to Shubin when in this chapter he talks about walking with Chuck. I feel the same as Shubin does when I'm in school. Except for my Chuck are my teachers and I am Shubin. Constantly asking questions and not understanding the answer given to me for the life of me. This shows me that Shubin didn't always know what to do and how to do it, just like everyone else he had to start somewhere in order to achieve greatness.

I thought it was very funny how after his first expedition with Chuck and Bill, Shubin thought that he was ready to fly solo. This trial and error shows how Shubin is growing throughout the book. Somehow it would seem as though we are not only learning about the history of humans and mammals, but also of Shubin and how he had evolved to be the paleontologist teaching anatomy that he is today. This trial and error also seemed to benefit him because he learned how some placed that would seem to have a lot of bones do not, and that one of the best places to work with is the coast line because of the water exposure to the rock minerals.

I could almost feel the excitement with Shubin and Bill as they uncovered the bones. After searching for months after end and to find the bones in the most unlikely of places would be a great shock and a good surprise to all. It just goes to show that sometimes good things come in the most unlikely places.

From the way that Shubin describes the teeth it makes it shound as though the teeth have their own history. Makes me think that we should have a whole study dedicated just to teeth, but isn't that dentistry? I don't know. Teeth can show so much about someone that it makes me think about one day paleontologists will be looking at my teeth and looking at how I used to be a sweet lover. It also shows that the mouth changes just as everything else to soot the needs of the animal. Even though an animals mouths are not the same doesn't mean that they are totally differently related from each other.

So I looked up conodonts because I wanted a better visual of them because they seemed quite interesting looking when Shubin described them. They aren't. They look like creepy crawly snakes that are almost a combination between snakes and snails. It would terrify me if I was the one to find them in the hundreds at once. I am somewhat confused by the thought that conodonts are teeth. Are they just teeth or are they just the evolution of an ancient jaw-less fish. They really don't explain this part to the fullest extent as I would have like.

I thought it was very interesting that teeth has changed from being something to bite another to defend against others. It shows how even though humans and many other animals use their teeth for eating and biting that ancient animals and maybe even animals that we are unaware of currently use their teeth for different purposes.