Student Spotlight: Biting Into Research

Derek Aoki, graduate student in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science at the FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, recently co-authored a paper that used forensic analysis of shark bites on sea turtles in Florida and Alabama to infer the possible size and species of the predator.

One of the most interesting finds, according to Aoki, is that great white sharks accounted for the most probable predator. The results are published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series.

"This project used an underutilized method to aid in studying predator-prey relationships because," Aoki said. "I want people to see that different approaches can cross ecological species and can reveal surprising or significant results." Read more.