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Press Enterprise (Riverside, CA)
August 4, 2005, Thursday
CAL STATE SAN BERNARDINO: STUDENT HOPES STUDY WILL HELP DENTISTS;
QUEST TO DIG OUT ANSWERS;
She has spent the last year studying rare reptile's teeth
by DARRELL R. SANTSCHI; THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE
Kahneria was a four-legged reptile that hung out around north-central
Texas, munching on green leaves and mollusks 50 million years before
the dinosaurs.
These days he lies around in a flat tub on a shelf in a biology
laboratory at Cal State San Bernardino, where a 39-year-old Loma
Linda mother of two glares at him through a microscope and picks at
his teeth.
Araxie Demirdji is his dentist.
A biology student at the university, Demirdji has spent the last year
studying one of only two kahneria skulls ever found.
Considering that the other one is more crumbled debris than intact
skull, Demirdji may be deeper into the head of kahneria than anyone
has ever been.
She will publish a report in scientific journals in the next two
years that will tell scientists what kahneria did with so many teeth
- at least 58 in its upper jaw alone with regular replacements -
and possibly insight into how teeth have evolved in humans and other
critters.
This could be useful, her teacher says, to veterinarians and dentists
wanting to know how jaws and teeth change.
All this from a woman who works as an office manager in an
orthodontist's office and isn't really interested in a career as a
paleontologist. Most paleontologists hunt for and study fossils for
the preparation of environmental-impact reports when somebody wants
to build something.
That's how kahneria wound up in San Bernardino. The critter turned
up encrusted in rock when construction crews were building a road in
Texas. A professor from the Field Institute in Chicago took him there
and then shipped him on to Stuart Sumida, a biology professor at Cal
State San Bernardino. Sumida was looking for the right student to do
the reptile's share of the work.
The student, a Lebanese-born Armenian immigrant who was drawing
pictures of dinosaurs as Sumida described them during one of his
classes, is Araxie Demirdji.
She came to the United States in 1988 with son, Sevan, 15, daughter,
Marianne, 14, and her husband, Samuel Demirdji, who came to study
organic chemistry at the University of Colorado.
In the mid-1990s, Samuel Demirdji was accepted at the Loma Linda
University School of Dentistry and Araxie Demirdji took a job as an
assistant at the dental school until he graduated in 2000.
Much of the family's priorities were wrapped around her husband's
education, Araxie Demirdji said. But once he went into private
practice, while teaching one day a week at the Loma Linda dental
school, she had an opportunity to go to school. She decided to study
biology.
"Since I was a child, my whole world was about insects and plants
and animals and nature," she said. "I can't let go."
She enrolled at Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa. Two semesters later
she transferred to San Bernardino Valley College, where she studied
organic chemistry for three quarters and then transferred to Cal State.
One of the first biology courses she took at Cal State was Sumida's
class on dinosaurs.
"Every time he would show us a picture of a dinosaur or a reptile, I
would draw it as I took notes," she said. "I could relate the drawing
to what he was talking about. I remember, one day I showed him."
Sumida was impressed.
"She was sort of a quiet, unassuming person, but she was extremely
meticulous and extremely careful in the laboratory doing dissections,"
he said. "So, when she expressed interest in my research, I invited
her into the laboratory. I knew she had the patience and the mind-set
to do this kind of work. You have to be extremely patient."
The office-size laboratory is a narrow, cramped room with heavy steel
cabinets to protect dinosaur bones. Microscopes, models and assembled
skeletons are spread around in what appears to the casual visitor
like random disorder.
Demirdji opens one of the cabinets, removes a tray, and finds an
unoccupied corner of a table to study bone fragments, and later the
skull, of the 250 million-year-old animal.
Because Demirdji works as an office manager and X-ray technician
at her husband's office, Sumida said she was specially qualified to
separate the bones from the rock and study the animal's teeth. She
took X-rays of the skull at her office and used dental tools for the
tedious close-in work.
She has been at it for a year now, cleaning the specimen in a process
that normally takes as long as two years.
"You're picking rock off of bones," Sumida said. "You can't just
scrub it with water. You have to use dental tools. The experience
she has at her office meant she already understands dental structure."
Demirdji said she has focused considerable attention on the six rows
of teeth, which have different functions much like in humans.
The critter replaced the teeth as needed. Replacements did not come
as fast as in a shark's jaw, but unlike humans, kahneria could grow
more than one new set.
The creature lived on dry land, she figures, but likely had a water
hole or a lake nearby. It lived in a semitropical climate and needed
all those teeth because plants are tougher to chew and digest than
meat, she said.
Next up is completing a scientific paper, which Sumida says could
take an additional two years. Then Demirdji said she likely will
start studying a dinosaur. Or a reptile. Something with teeth.
She wants a degree but not a permanent paleontology job.
"I think it would not hurt to have a degree on the side," she
said. "You do what you like, what you love to do. Then, at the same
time, you do something else."
GRAPHIC: GREG VOJTKO/THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE / (1) "Since I was a child,
my whole world was about insects and plants and animals and nature,"
Araxie Demirdji says. "I can't let go." (2) Demirdji shows the teeth
of a 250 million-year-old reptilian skull that she's studying at Cal
State San Bernardino. (3) Araxie Demirdji, who works at her husband's
orthodontist office, has spent the last year studying one of only two
kahneria skulls ever found. (4) "I knew she had the patience and the
mind-set to do this kind of work. You have to be extremely patient."
STUART SUMIDA, BIOLOGY PROFESSOR AT CAL STATE SAN BERNARDINO; PHOTOS
August 4, 2005, Thursday
CAL STATE SAN BERNARDINO: STUDENT HOPES STUDY WILL HELP DENTISTS;
QUEST TO DIG OUT ANSWERS;
She has spent the last year studying rare reptile's teeth
by DARRELL R. SANTSCHI; THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE
Kahneria was a four-legged reptile that hung out around north-central
Texas, munching on green leaves and mollusks 50 million years before
the dinosaurs.
These days he lies around in a flat tub on a shelf in a biology
laboratory at Cal State San Bernardino, where a 39-year-old Loma
Linda mother of two glares at him through a microscope and picks at
his teeth.
Araxie Demirdji is his dentist.
A biology student at the university, Demirdji has spent the last year
studying one of only two kahneria skulls ever found.
Considering that the other one is more crumbled debris than intact
skull, Demirdji may be deeper into the head of kahneria than anyone
has ever been.
She will publish a report in scientific journals in the next two
years that will tell scientists what kahneria did with so many teeth
- at least 58 in its upper jaw alone with regular replacements -
and possibly insight into how teeth have evolved in humans and other
critters.
This could be useful, her teacher says, to veterinarians and dentists
wanting to know how jaws and teeth change.
All this from a woman who works as an office manager in an
orthodontist's office and isn't really interested in a career as a
paleontologist. Most paleontologists hunt for and study fossils for
the preparation of environmental-impact reports when somebody wants
to build something.
That's how kahneria wound up in San Bernardino. The critter turned
up encrusted in rock when construction crews were building a road in
Texas. A professor from the Field Institute in Chicago took him there
and then shipped him on to Stuart Sumida, a biology professor at Cal
State San Bernardino. Sumida was looking for the right student to do
the reptile's share of the work.
The student, a Lebanese-born Armenian immigrant who was drawing
pictures of dinosaurs as Sumida described them during one of his
classes, is Araxie Demirdji.
She came to the United States in 1988 with son, Sevan, 15, daughter,
Marianne, 14, and her husband, Samuel Demirdji, who came to study
organic chemistry at the University of Colorado.
In the mid-1990s, Samuel Demirdji was accepted at the Loma Linda
University School of Dentistry and Araxie Demirdji took a job as an
assistant at the dental school until he graduated in 2000.
Much of the family's priorities were wrapped around her husband's
education, Araxie Demirdji said. But once he went into private
practice, while teaching one day a week at the Loma Linda dental
school, she had an opportunity to go to school. She decided to study
biology.
"Since I was a child, my whole world was about insects and plants
and animals and nature," she said. "I can't let go."
She enrolled at Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa. Two semesters later
she transferred to San Bernardino Valley College, where she studied
organic chemistry for three quarters and then transferred to Cal State.
One of the first biology courses she took at Cal State was Sumida's
class on dinosaurs.
"Every time he would show us a picture of a dinosaur or a reptile, I
would draw it as I took notes," she said. "I could relate the drawing
to what he was talking about. I remember, one day I showed him."
Sumida was impressed.
"She was sort of a quiet, unassuming person, but she was extremely
meticulous and extremely careful in the laboratory doing dissections,"
he said. "So, when she expressed interest in my research, I invited
her into the laboratory. I knew she had the patience and the mind-set
to do this kind of work. You have to be extremely patient."
The office-size laboratory is a narrow, cramped room with heavy steel
cabinets to protect dinosaur bones. Microscopes, models and assembled
skeletons are spread around in what appears to the casual visitor
like random disorder.
Demirdji opens one of the cabinets, removes a tray, and finds an
unoccupied corner of a table to study bone fragments, and later the
skull, of the 250 million-year-old animal.
Because Demirdji works as an office manager and X-ray technician
at her husband's office, Sumida said she was specially qualified to
separate the bones from the rock and study the animal's teeth. She
took X-rays of the skull at her office and used dental tools for the
tedious close-in work.
She has been at it for a year now, cleaning the specimen in a process
that normally takes as long as two years.
"You're picking rock off of bones," Sumida said. "You can't just
scrub it with water. You have to use dental tools. The experience
she has at her office meant she already understands dental structure."
Demirdji said she has focused considerable attention on the six rows
of teeth, which have different functions much like in humans.
The critter replaced the teeth as needed. Replacements did not come
as fast as in a shark's jaw, but unlike humans, kahneria could grow
more than one new set.
The creature lived on dry land, she figures, but likely had a water
hole or a lake nearby. It lived in a semitropical climate and needed
all those teeth because plants are tougher to chew and digest than
meat, she said.
Next up is completing a scientific paper, which Sumida says could
take an additional two years. Then Demirdji said she likely will
start studying a dinosaur. Or a reptile. Something with teeth.
She wants a degree but not a permanent paleontology job.
"I think it would not hurt to have a degree on the side," she
said. "You do what you like, what you love to do. Then, at the same
time, you do something else."
GRAPHIC: GREG VOJTKO/THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE / (1) "Since I was a child,
my whole world was about insects and plants and animals and nature,"
Araxie Demirdji says. "I can't let go." (2) Demirdji shows the teeth
of a 250 million-year-old reptilian skull that she's studying at Cal
State San Bernardino. (3) Araxie Demirdji, who works at her husband's
orthodontist office, has spent the last year studying one of only two
kahneria skulls ever found. (4) "I knew she had the patience and the
mind-set to do this kind of work. You have to be extremely patient."
STUART SUMIDA, BIOLOGY PROFESSOR AT CAL STATE SAN BERNARDINO; PHOTOS