Meeting Abstract
Historically, extant chondrichthyan tooth shape has been used to make predictions about function and ecology. The shark fossil record is primarily composed of teeth, and likewise, inferences about fossil shark ecology are primarily made based on tooth morphology. However, the link between shark tooth morphology, function, and ecology have recently been called into question. This study examines the link between ecology and tooth morphology in 39 species of extant sharks via redundancy analysis (RDA) of ecological and morphological data. We measured functional, continuous aspects of shark tooth shape, as well as some categorical characters that have been historically used to describe certain morphologies (e.g., cladodont, hybodont). We then compare the occupation of tooth morphospace in 76 Paleozoic selachians to that of extant sharks, as an example of how to leverage quantitative, multivariate data on extant sharks to gain insight into extinct sharks. We found few links between extant tooth morphology and ecological variables such as diet. However, the morphospace analysis yielded some areas of overlap between extant and extinct taxa that are worth exploring, as well as patterns of shrinking tooth morphospace coincident with the Permian-Triassic extinction.
