The following is an excerpt from Bite: An Incisive History of Teeth, from Hagfish to Humans by Bill Schutt. When you purchase products through the Bookshop.org link on this page, Science Friday earns ...

They don’t know it, but Darwin’s finches changed the world. These closely related species — native to the Galapagos Islands — each sport a uniquely shaped beak that matches their preferred diet.

A high-sugar diet is bad news for humans, leading to diabetes, obesity and even cancer. Yet fruit bats survive and even thrive by eating up to twice their body weight in sugary fruit every day. Now, ...

An extreme case of noctilionoid bats with a fruit-based diet, the wrinkle-faced bat, Centurio senex, has a short bulldog-like snout and reduced numbers of teeth.