Rye Anatomist Featured on PBS Documentary

When she's not at home in Rye or teaching comparative anatomy at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Dr. Joy Reidenberg travels the world learning more about her field of study. She's not dissecting cadavers in international morgues though, she's taking a closer look at large animals. Really large. Giant octopus and squid, even camels. All to learn more about the ways in which these magnificiently strange creatures have adapted to their environment in every way.

PBS documentary Inside Nature's Giants will air new episodes on June 23 and 30 at 10 p.m. Anatomist Reidenberg works with veterinary scientist Mark Evans and evolutionary biologists Richard Dawkins and Simon Watt to autopsy a large wild animal. On this week's episode, Reidenberg works with a giant squid.

The show, which first aired in Britain, has been a great success and first aired in the United States back in February. Wednesday features Reidenberg in one of several new episodes; PBS may develop even more showing the anatomy expert literally getting into her work exploring the animal carcasses. The New York Times did a great multimedia profile of her where she explained her fascination with her work.  

“We’re so used to looking at the outside of the animal — look how pretty it is, look how fast it can run,” Reidenberg told the New York Times. “But there’s a lot of prettiness on the inside that people miss.”