Dr. Ken Angielczyk is an Associate Curator at the Field Museum. While his research primarily focuses on a group of ancient mammal relatives called Dicynodonts, he's dabbled elsewhere in the fossil record, too- but no matter the subject of study, there's usually a story involved. There was that one time a broken fossil turtle shell led to a surprising discovery, or another instance in which he very nearly walked away from a site teeming with Asilisaurus- one of the oldest dinosaurs ever discovered.

Mistakes in life and inevitable and scientists certainly aren't immune to them, either. Today's episode explores what these little learning opportunities in disguise have to offer us when we decide to pay attention. 

---

Each episode includes a segment at the end where we want to hear from you. Actually, we want to hear from your environment. We wanna know:

1. Your name
2. Where you are in the world, and what you're doing
3. 30-45 recorded seconds of your environment, preferably outside, anywhere (and everywhere). Whether you're in an urban area on your way to work or school, conducting fieldwork near home or abroad, or just enjoying a moment outside-- we want to hear it!

You can record it using the voice memo app on your smartphone and email the file to us either by responding to this newsletter or sending it to exploreastory(at)fieldmuseum.org, with the subject line "OK to share- EAS." Please include your name & location in the recording! By sending us the file you're giving us permission to use it at the end of a future episode or another Brain Scoop-related project, so thank you in advance.

---

ExploreAStory is written and hosted by Emily Graslie, produced by Sheheryar Ahsan and Brandon Brungard, with music by Jason Weidner, and made with support from the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois.