Shark Tank Re-Fit Lends Teeth To Research Into Prehistoric Seas

Scientists are filtering through bags of gravel from the bed of the ocean display at Blackpool Sea Life Centre, and expect a final haul of more than 12,000 shark teeth. Oxygen atoms in the discarded teeth can reveal the temperature the sharks lived in, and a University of Birmingham research team hopes by studying them it can perfect the technique for use on fossil shark teeth. Establishing the prevailing sea temperatures can help explain sudden crashes of marine species as well as sudden evolutionary spurts in prehistoric times. 'The principle has already been used by several research groups,' said research lead Ivan Sansom, a senior lecturer in palaeobiology from the University of Birmingham. 'By examining the teeth of sharks whose water temperature has been carefully recorded, we can refine the technique to make fossil studies more reliable,' he added. Sansom's students began their probe a year ago using just the few teeth collected occasionally by Sea Life centre scuba divers. Now the emptying of Blackpool Sea Life's ocean display for the first time in 23 years has delivered a windfall that meets all their research needs.