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Fall 2019 Edition
Alumni & Friends Magazine

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What can we learn from half of a fossilized rodent tooth?

by Staff Report | October 15, 2019

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In paleontology, sometimes a find that is not much larger than the head of a pin can yield surprising insights into our planet’s past. One example is a partial tooth discovered by 91̽»¨ researchers in 2003 in southwestern Tanzania. Although this discovery was not a complete skeleton or even a complete tooth, it preserved just enough information to lead to a discovery about how the earth’s plates are moving in the East African Rift.

Professor Nancy Stevens

Other discoveries uncovered by Professor Stevens include evidence of one of the ever to walk the Earth, as well as


Feature photograph: Nancy Stevens and Patrick O’Connor excavate a site in Tanzania in 2019, where they have worked together for more than 18 years. Photo by Ben Siegel Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ‘02