Sometimes working in the collections means finding a dead mole by the parking lot, asking the mammal curator if he wants it, and getting sent back out with a ziplock bag and gloves. He was fairly impressed because usually these carcasses are too decayed to collect when found. Not mine tho

My understanding is that that’s a subject of much paleontological debate, but one paper posits that different tooth shapes along the whorl allowed it to eat and process both hard-shelled prey (ammonites, etc.) and other cartilaginous fishes

The bestie and boyf and I are participating today in the extraordinarily popular cultural phenomenon Helicoprion* in which we watch Jaws and Spiral: From the Book of Saw back to back

* Helicoprion is a genus of extinct shark known for its spiral-shaped “whorl” tooth

Sketched three of my novel characters as “Esmeralda und Phoebus von Claude Frollo ueberrascht” by Auguste Couder (1837) during a Deadlands session last night. Those familiar with the novel know that I’ve designated the entire Hunchback of Notre Dame musical as its soundtrack.