Fossilized head of 340 million-year-old shark found in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave
Scientists excavating a cave in Kentucky were stunned to find the fossilized head of a huge shark — one thought to be up to 340 million years old, according to a report.
Rick Olson and Rick Toomey first came across the remains while mapping the world’s longest cave system, the 400-mile Mammoth Cave National Park, the Louisville Courier Journal said.
Their findings reached paleontologist John-Paul Hodnett, who joined them after finding a lower jaw, skull cartilage and several teeth from a shark the size of a Great White, possibly up to 21-feet long.
“I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to see in the cave,” Hodnett told the Courier Journal.
“When we got to our target specimen my mind was blown.”
The shark belonged to a species called Saivodus striatus from the Late Mississippian period, about 330 to 340 million years ago, Hodnett said.
The team was particularly stunned because the area it was found — a layer of rock that extends from Missouri to Virginia — has “never documented the presence of sharks, until now,” he said.
“It’s like finding a missing puzzle piece to a very big picture,” the paleontologist said.
Hodnett said teeth and dorsal fins of other shark species also appeared evident in the cave walls.
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