Fossils collected in disturbed sediments, for example, from active mines and quarries, are less desirable for paleontological study than those found in undisturbed material. However, appropriate measuring and analyzing tools can provide useful information, even when the specimens have been collected from disturbed material. We give an example of such a situation, using four collections (of differing ages) of teeth from the fossil snaggletooth shark, Hemipristis serra.

We developed a software-measuring tool, which uses pictures of the teeth obtained from a flat bed scanner. With this we were able to quickly and precisely measure the appropriate features of each tooth. A statistical analysis was then completed on the gathered data; this showed that teeth from older sediments were generally smaller and also that the ratio of unserrated tip length to total edge length was larger in older teeth. This type of evolutionary change is difficult to document with fossil shark teeth because these features also change during the life of individual sharks.