Paleontology collections are wonderful. Shelves and cabinets hold anywhere from thousands to hundreds of millions of years of life’s history, assembling giant ground sloths, Cambrian oddballs, petrified plants, and other fantastic organisms into a fossilized menagerie. And as much as I’ve enjoyed my opportunities to explore prehistoric storage on my own, it’s even better when curators can spare a few minutes to show off their favorite treasures.

The last time I had the pleasure of getting such a tour was in late February. I had made an appointment with paleontologist Ted Daeschler  to chat about our early tetrapod ancestors, and he was kind enough to give me a whirlwind tour of the collections