Chapter Four: Teeth Everywhere

This chapter was my favorite of the chapters that I have read so far. It immediately started with Shubin’s first expeditions, which is really when I became interested. I like to know of the peoples’ experiences, emotions, and hardships that they go through because it displays why a tooth is such an important and exciting find, which we wouldn’t realize if we just heard what they discovered. I was amazed at how much teeth can tell about an organism or that each species has different teeth. It is incredible that the teeth Shubin found in his first expedition revealed that it was part reptile and part mammal. And other discoveries such as the conodont only had teeth for its hard body parts. It is hard to believe that such species existed in this world because they are so different from the ones we are used to seeing. Or, that teeth were the introduction to bones, which without teeth, species might never have developed scales or feathers.