Project description
Teeth tell the tale of shark survival
As modern shark populations plummet, marine ecosystems are losing their most vital anchors. To understand how these apex predators might survive our current era of extinction, scientists are looking to the only evidence that does not rot away: their teeth. The ERC-funded SHARKS project aims to study isotopes of zinc and nitrogen trapped in enamel. Using this data, researchers are reconstructing the ‘who-ate-whom’ of ancient oceans. The project investigates why certain lineages thrived while icons like the Megalodon vanished, exploring whether dietary competition or shifting food webs were the true killers. By mapping how sharks navigated the cataclysm that wiped out the dinosaurs, the project is building a roadmap for modern conservation, using prehistoric survival to protect today’s oceans.
Objective
In the midst of the “sixths mass extinction event”, shark populations are declining with severe consequences for marine communities and ecosystem resilience. Diet is a key driver of shark evolution and a predictor of their extinction risk. Conservation efforts benefit from understanding past shark trophic ecology and how they coped with previous biotic crises. New analytical achievements in isotope proxy development allow the use of fossil teeth to reconstruct the trophic ecology of pre-Pleistocene animals. Using the novel Zn isotope proxy combined, for the first time, with other innovative trophic proxies (Ca and enameloid-bound N isotopes) on the same fossil and modern tooth samples, SHARKS will investigate the factor diet for a shark’s extinction risk, as well as food web changes across extinction events. Acknowledging the trophic position as an evolving trait, the project will pioneer a temporal approach, tracking trophic ecology of shark species through time. We will combine enameloid Zn, Ca and N isotopes with conventional dietary proxies (collagen C and N isotopes) in modern marine food webs to create a template for palaeoecological applications. Using this novel multi-proxy approach, we will investigate whether the emergence of serrated teeth in the Carcharodon lineage provided an ecological advantage for the modern great white shark (C. carcharias) over its now extinct ancestor with unserrated teeth C. hastalis. We will also test, from an ontogenetic perspective, the hypothesis of dietary competition between C. carcharias and the giant Otodus megalodon as potential factor of the latter’s extinction. Finally, we will explore the impact of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event (66 Ma) on the trophic ecology of sharks and food web dynamics providing a hitherto unachievable view on one of the most devastating faunal turnovers in Earth’s history. The results will provide so far unattainable insights for conservation palaeobiology, ecology and palaeontology.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities history and archaeology history
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology
- medical and health sciences health sciences nutrition
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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60323 Frankfurt Am Main
Germany
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