Mar 8, 2013
How about a little trip down memory lane? The setting: last weekend I went to DC and loaded my 4yo Pentagon storage unit into a U-haul and hauled it back to Chicago just in time to meet the season's hopefully last blizzard - awesome timing! Well, while unpacking the snow soaked dusty ole boxes of randomness, I came across this...the key to my fishy success (as it were). This is the pharyngeal jaw bone of the Black Drum (Pogonias cromis) that it uses to make cement mix out of oysters and clams - it's favorite meal (must be quite a randy fish). This bizarre bone, found in the gill region, was the entire focus of my dissertation. Yes, I know...hindsight is always 20/20.