From Student to Scientist

At McWane Science Center, students don’t just learn about science, they contribute to it.

Over the past two years, Samford University student Madison Dorsey worked alongside our paleontologist, Jun Ebersole, studying Blacknose sharks from the Gulf of Mexico.

“I often recruit high-achieving students to take on large data set projects in my lab,” Jun said. “In Madison’s case, she was selected to examine more than 100 Blacknose shark jaws from the northern Gulf, working with specimens provided by our fisheries colleagues.”

“While at McWane I was studying the heterodonty of Blacknose sharks. That means looking at how the teeth within a single shark’s jaw are different from one another. Most research doesn’t look at how those differences change based on age or sex, so my project aimed to fill that gap.”

Her work contributes to a broader research effort to better understand tooth variation in sharks and rays and how that translates to the fossil record. 

“One of my favorite things I learned is that sharks are constantly replacing their teeth. They have a special tissue that allows new teeth to form and move forward almost like a conveyor belt, which creates a lot of variation in their teeth.”

“Madison’s interest in marine science made her an ideal student for this work, and her dedication over the past two years has been exceptional. We’re now very close to publishing our results.”

Madison will graduate from Samford University this May and is heading to University of South Alabama to pursue her Master’s in Oceanography.

“Working on this project through McWane gave me so many opportunities, from talking with donors and media to presenting my research at a conference.”

“If I had to sum up my time at McWane, it would definitely be ‘a turning point in my research career.’”

We’re proud to be part of her journey.

For more information on McWane’s Natural History Collection, visit our Collections Page.