Paleontology Research Lab, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University
We're busy creating paleontology-focused public science projects to give the public the chance to experience the wonder of discovery. Check out our project portals below!
Cretaceous Creatures
Partner with scientists to discover and identify the animals that lived and died
just before the end-Cretaceous extinction event
Shark Tooth Forensics
Discover and measure fossil shark teeth to determine preservational biases in the fossil record
and reconstruct the body size of extinct sharks.
FossilPhiles
A teen public science project to digitize create our most significant fossil specimens
Selected Publications
Gates TA, Dunn RR, Thomas J, Bourne NW, Boyd RI, Elliot P, Gandee SR, Argall B, Clark C, Hall K, Shell L, Alford A, Zanno LE. Submitted. Shark Tooth Forensics: A citizen science initiative to unravel ancient shark ecology.
Boyd RI, Lewis MD, Simpson J, Zanno LE, Gates TA. 2019. Combating Stereotype Threat in Underrepresented Populations through Citizen Science and Geoscience Education. Citizen Science Association Conference
Gates TA, Tucker RT, Bourne NW, Engelbrecht R, Rampou S, Zanno LE, Hulbert JM, Turner SC. 2019. Establishing Public Education-Research Collaborations using citizen science in the Western Cape of South Africa: Identifying the challenges. Citizen Science Association Conference
Thomas J, Hall K, Albright K, Gates TA, Zanno LE. 2015. “Students Discover” shark tooth forensics: a citizen science initiative bridging middle school students, teachers, and paleontologists. J Vert Paleontol Progr Abstr, 2015, 225