In my previous post, I summed up the decades-long fascination palaeontologists have had with mosasaur teeth. It seems like an odd subject, but this interest in mosasaur teeth and their attachment to the jaws turned centuries of assumptions about tooth evolution on their heads. The debate is about the spongy mass of tissue that forms … Continue reading Weighing in on the “mosasaur tooth debate”: doing science on ancient teeth

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Mosasaurs have a special place in my heart. I worked on them for my Master’s degree, but I also re-visited them as a PhD student. This post explores how mosasaur teeth became some of the most thoroughly studied among any reptile, and how the findings from the debates surrounding them have inadvertently re-shaped our understanding … Continue reading Why are palaeontologists so interested in mosasaur teeth?

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In the third and final entry about the Dinosaur Dentistry event held at the University of Alberta, I wanted to talk about what makes studying dinosaur teeth so interesting. I’ve pointed out previously how at a fundamental level dinosaur teeth and human teeth are built from the same building blocks. That’s because the teeth in … Continue reading Dinosaur Dentistry, Part 3: steak knives and dental batteries

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As I mentioned in the previous post, on September 22nd, 2018, I gave a presentation at the University of Alberta at an event called Dinosaur Dentistry. My talk was on the ins and outs of dinosaur teeth. This talk focused on the tissues that make up a dinosaur tooth and how they compare to the … Continue reading Dinosaur Dentistry, Part 2: Aaron vs. a Dinosaur

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On September 22nd, 2018, I gave a 45-minute talk for about 200 people at an event hosted by the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta. The event was the brainchild of a well-known anthropologist and dental specialist, Dr. G.H. Sperber and included talks from two other professors, Dr.’s Philip J. Currie … Continue reading Dinosaur Dentistry, Part 1: what do dinosaurs and dentistry have in common?

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I started my Master’s degree in September 2008 and like most brand-new graduate students, I felt that sense of accomplishment of having just made it to the next level of my professional education. But then came my first conference talk… It was in Morocco. A beautiful sunny day. My supervisor had paid for my flight … Continue reading Making a memorable (for the right reasons!) conference talk for your audience

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Have you ever had braces? My dentist once told me that I had a big mouth (it was insulting at first, but she told me it was a good thing), so my teeth had plenty of room to move into place. If you’re one of the many, many unlucky ones to have had braces, you … Continue reading What are teeth made of? Part 3: The periodontium

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For this post, we’ll look at the tissue that makes up the bulk of your tooth, the dentine. Dentine is a very, VERY ancient tissue. It actually shows up in the fossil record of vertebrates BEFORE teeth do! The scales of many extinct jawless fishes are made of dentine, fueling a widely accepted idea that … Continue reading What are teeth made of? Part 2: Dentin(e) and the pulp

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Welcome to ToothPics!  I’m a palaeontologist who specializes on teeth and how they’ve changed over millions of years. That means that I have seen a lot of teeth. I mean…a lot of teeth. For palaeontologists like me, fossilized teeth are a great source of information, because their shapes tell you something about their diet (I … Continue reading Welcome to ToothPics!

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