Dr. Gideon Mantell was a collector of things. He collected stamps, coins, and curiosities of all kinds but in 1820 his latest odds and ends proved very odd indeed. In a short walk from her home in Sussex England, Mary Mantell, the doctor’s wife, noticed an interesting rock in a gravel pit by the side of the road. Embedded in the stone is what appeared to be an enormous tooth? She showed it to her husband, who was immediately mesmerized by this strange curiosity. “What sort of creature could ha