Fall 2019 EditionAlumni & 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 Ohio University 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.
Other discoveries uncovered by Professor Stevens include evidence of one of the largest meat-eating mammals ever to walk the Earth, as well as six new species of invertebrates.
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
