PhD Studentship: CENTA 2027-B18 Modelling function in the jaws of sharks throughout their evolutionary history

Sharks are a diverse, ecologically important, and vulnerable group of fishes with an ancient history. Although the word shark tends to conjure the image of a primeval apex predator, living elasmobranchs live in open ocean, nearshore, and freshwater habitats worldwide, with ecological roles as diverse as bottom-dwelling suction feeders, open ocean filter feeders, and flat-bodied shell-crunchers. Moreover, far from being primitive this rich biodiversity is rooted in a unique feeding system. Highly mobile jaws made from a specialised calcified cartilage and lined with ever-replacing tooth tows are linked to the skull via ligaments and a rod-like hyoid cartilage which allows them to swing outwards during feeding (Wroe et al. 2008). There is great variation in the shape of shark jaws and presumably their function.

The fossil record of isolated teeth shows that this feeding system extends back least 400 million years, and it has rich potential for understanding the relationship between ecology and evolution (López-Romero et al. 2023). However, understanding it is hindered in living sharks by the difficulty of studying anything but small, shallow-water species, and in extinct sharks by the sparse record of fossilised cartilages. Most functional studies have either focussed on specific taxa with specialised feeding mechanics (e.g. Wroe et al. 2008) or looked at the shape of individual parts of the feeding apparatus across the group (e.g. López-Romero et al. 2023, Griffin et al. 2025). Our understanding of how different jaw arrangements in both living and extinct shark relates to their function is very limited.

Recently surging use of tomographic methods has seen a huge increase in datasets on the skeletal anatomy of sharks both living and extinct (e.g. Dearden et al. 2025). This presents the opportunity to carry out quantitative, comparative functional morphological studies across the sweep of fossil and living sharks to understand their feeding apparatus as a multipart system. Using computed tomographic data on fossil and living elasmobranchs and multibody dynamics approaches (Lautenschlager 2020, Dearden et al. 2023) this project will investigate how different forms of the living shark feeding system affect its function throughout their long evolutionary history.

For further information on this project and details of how to apply to it please visit https://centa.ac.uk/studentship/2027-b18-modelling-function-in-the-jaws-of-sharks-throughout-their-evolutionary-history/

Further information on how to apply for a CENTA studentship can be found on the CENTA website: https://centa.ac.uk/apply/

Funding notes:

This project is offered through the CENTA3 DLA, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Funding covers: annual stipend, tuition fees (at home-fee level), Research Training Support Grant.

Academic requirements: at least a 2:1 at UK BSc level or a pass at UK MSc level or equivalent.

International students are eligible for studentships to a maximum of 30% of the cohort. Funding does not cover any additional costs relating to moving or residing in the UK. International applicants must fulfil the University’s international student entry requirements, including English language.  Further information: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/postgraduate/pgt/requirements-pgt/international/index.aspx.

References:
Dearden et al (2023) Evidence for high-performance suction feeding in the Pennsylvanian stem-group holocephalan Iniopera, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 120(4) https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2207854119.

Dearden et al(2025) Three-dimensional fossils of a Cretaceous collared carpet shark (Parascylliidae, Orectolobiformes) shed light on skeletal evolution in galeomorphs, Royal Society Open Science, 12(4). https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.242011.

Griffin et al (2025) Evolution of chondrichthyan jaw morphology, from ecological generalists to specialists, Paleobiology. https://doi.org/10.1017/pab.2025.10077.

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