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Despite the fact that he was born with no teeth, Mark Purnell has made a career of studying dentition. In particular, he's interested in the functional morphology, feeding mechanisms, and diversity of early jawless vertebrates, including various groups of "ostracoderms" and conodonts. After completing his bachelor's at Nottingham, he decided to move to the more hospitable climes of Newcastle for his PhD, and more recently, Leicester. These academic posts were only briefly interrupted by a stint at the University of Texas, where he developed an affection for the Longhorn's American-style football team. When not surfing the web, Mark enjoys flyfishing and smoking his pipe by the hearth.
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