How Shark Tooth Medicine Connects Classrooms to Ancient Oceans

Imagine holding a piece of ancient history in your hands – a fossilized, sharp and broken shark tooth from centuries past, once used by one of the most ferocious predators to roam our oceans. That’s the promise of Shark Tooth Forensics, a project designed to connect grades K-12 with marine paleontology.

Participatory science is redefining the way scientific research is conducted, making it more inclusive and collaborative than ever. Known for involving volunteers in data collection, the approach now extends to almost every scientific field. Increasingly, educators and researchers are using this model to engage public school students, a group uniquely suited to contribute to real-world science by benefiting from educational experiences.

The STF project was developed as part of the NSF-funded Students Discover initiative, which brings scientists and educators together to create participatory science opportunities for classrooms. It aims to answer a deceptively simple question: “What was the ecology of ancient sharks?” A question that is accessible enough to spark curiosity in students, yet comprehensive enough to support decades of research. Unlike the study of living sharks, paleontology relies on indirect evidence. Researchers must interpret ecosystems based on the fossilized remains and the sedimentary layers in which they are found. Shark teeth are particularly valuable for this purpose. Their abundance and persistence make them a treasure trove of information about past environments. However, uncovering patterns in ancient shark populations and their ecological roles requires large amounts of data, where participatory science becomes essential.

The process for STF begins with the collection of sediments from fossil-rich localities, primarily along the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the US and selected areas in southwest Africa. The sediments are processed through a series of screens to concentrate the fossil material, which is then sent to participating schools. Once in the classroom, students take on the role of paleontologists, carefully sifting to discover and document fossils in a shared database. Each tooth is measured, assessed for completeness and edge wear, and graded according to overall shape. These details provide invaluable insight into identifying patterns in shark populations, such as which species coexisted, their feeding behaviors and how they changed over time. Teachers also received a comprehensive learning package divided into a standardized data collection protocol and optional activities tailored to different learning objectives. These activities linked the analysis of shark teeth to the wider curricula, including statistics, geometry and ecology. For example, students can calculate ratios of tooth dimensions, explore geometric properties of triangles, or hypothesize about prehistoric shark nurseries based on tooth size distributions!

Shark Tooth Forensics builds on the success of previous participatory science projects, such as Shark Finders and Mastodon Matrix. And the STF wanted to ensure the accuracy of data collected from students. To assess this, researchers performed statistical analysis on measurements taken from high school students and compared them to those of trained university staff at NC State. Using a sample of 1,699 student-measured teeth and 214 additional teeth, t-tests and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests confirmed that student measurements were statistically indistinguishable from those of trained researchers, provided class sizes were enough. Interestingly, the variability in the measurements decreased as more students provided input, stabilizing with a class size of about 10. The students proved adept at detecting not only the typical triangular-shaped teeth, but also rarer shapes, such as those with extra mushrooms or unusual shaped mushrooms and roots.

Of course, the project is not without its challenges. Coordinating the collection, preparation and distribution of fossil-rich sediments requires considerable logistical effort. Ensuring consistency in recording data across different classes is another hurdle. However, the benefits outweigh these obstacles. The project has already yielded valuable data that contributes to our understanding of ancient shark ecology, and its long-term potential is tremendous. For the scientific community, the STF represents a scalable model for leveraging citizen science to address complex research questions.

As participatory science continues to evolve, projects like Shark Tooth Medicine are a powerful example of successful collaboration between scientists, educators and students. By putting real research in the hands of young learners, we are not only advancing scientific knowledge, but also inspiring the next generation to carry the torch of discovery.