Shark Tooth Forensics at Kalexedy

"I found a tooth!" isn't something you'd expect a sixth grader exclaim in your classroom and be excited about, but this week we're more than enthused to hear it!

We've been carefully sifting through gallons of washed river sediment containing fossils ranging from 3 to 10 million years old. Since sharks have cartilige instead of bones, the only remains they leave behind to become fossilized are their teeth! So we're sifting through fossilized clam shells, sea snails and even coproplites to find the treasured smooth and familiar shark teeth.

To be the first humans to set eyes on these fossils is such an exciting honor.

My latest scientific paper was just published, Shark Tooth Forensics: A Participatory Science Initiative to Unravel Ancient Shark Ecology, and to celebrate we sorted through fossil-rich sediment from Belvedere Beach in Virginia. Working with paleontologist and evolutionary biologist, Dr. Terry "Bucky" Gates, at North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, we're preparing specimens for the museum to use for hundreds of years to discover new information about costal ecosystems in prehistoric Virginia.

At Kalexedy, we're doing a new branch of the research project to determine if our middle grade students can sort, identify and measure specimens at the same accuracy as an undergraduate or graduate student. First they're finding, sorting and measuring their own samples, then they pass them to their classmates to measure and verify their data. Watching how careful they are and how much attention to detail they have, it's clear that their data will be high quality. I can't wait to share it with the researchers when we've completed sorting through our sediment!

If you're interested in participating in the research project, here are the free lesson plans. If you'd like to learn more about the project, visit Dr. Gates' website about the project and his research.

This is just one example of the participatory science that we do together at Kalexedy Learning Center -- I believe that incorporating authentic scientific research into the classroom is a way to promote curiosity, lifelong learning and community engagement.