Excuse me, why do you have teeth? How did they get in your mouth and where did they come from? Let’s ask researcher, tooth enthusiast, and Paleohistologist Dr. Yara Haridy. She opened up the archives at Chicago’s Field Museum to chat about ancient skulls, drawers of bones, and the evidence that changed how we think about chompers. Drop your jaws as we discuss the origins of teeth, why yours hurt, the long-debated rumors of extinct species, how particle accelerators and paleontology worlds collide, what tools fossil pickers rely on, teeny tiny mysteries, why you should hug a tree before it kills you, and why a catfish might become your overlord.

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Visit Dr. Yara Haridy’s website and follow her on Instagram

A donation went to the Sameer Project

Links to things we discussed:

Dr. Haridy’s most recent paper: The origin of vertebrate teeth and evolution of sensory exoskeletons

The NASA Twins Study: A multidimensional analysis of a year-long human spaceflight

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Weather.gov’s 2023 Wind Related Fatalities