Scientists study fossils without having to remove them from rock

It is! As a display it’s somewhat mind-boggling, but having enough skulls that you can actually do serious developmental and epidemiological studies of an extinct population is also somewhat mind-boggling.

(Though the skulls that blew me away were the sequence showing replacement of infant teeth with adult teeth in Smilodons. To avoid leaving the maturing kitten without functioning fangs, the new saber started growing in before the old one was lost. There was a LOT of skull erosion in the process. A teething sabertooth much have been a really mean kitty!)

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