Paleobiologist Geerat Vermeij is enthralled with mollusks. Their shells line the surfaces and fill the cabinets and drawers in his office on the second floor of the Earth and Planetary Sciences ...

We all like to think that we're super unique, one-of-a-kind rarities, and we are to a point — but not as much as we might think. Everyone has one of two types of earlobes, for example, not their ...