Embedded in the walls of the cave were parts of the head of an ancient shark, including teeth, the lower jaw and skull cartilage. The creature was about the size of a great white shark and lived some 330 million years ago; its remains, scientists say, offer new insight into the prehistoric creatures that once stalked the waters of North America.
Today, Kentucky is a landlocked state, making it seem like an odd place for shark fossils to surface. But during the Late Mississippian period—which spanned from about 330 million to 325 million years ago, according to Gizmodo’s George Dvorsky—much of North America was covered by shallow seas. The Mississippian is a subset of the Carboniferous epoch, which has been dubbed the “Golden Age of Sharks”; after an extinction event during the late Devonian period that killed off some 75 percent of all species on Earth, including many marine lineages, sharks emerged as the ocean’s apex predators.
More on the story:
Very strange to think there were sharks in the land we now call The Bluegrass State, eh?
Grace & Peace & Love to you all -
Matt