Mammoth Cave National Park has quickly become a hot spot for scientists for their latest discovery.
An ongoing project has resulted in the discovery of fossilized remains belonging to a 330-million-year-old shark and dozens of other specimens.
Scientists have identified the remains of 15 to 20 different species of shark deep within the cave, including part of the head of a large white shark-sized monster that partially protrudes from a rock.
Rick Olson and Rick Toomey, two experts at Mammoth Cave in central Kentucky, contacted Vitor Santucci, a paleontologist with the US National Park Service, after finding a fossilized figure.
Santucci then contacted his colleague John-Paul Hodnett of the Maryland Dinosaur Park, who visited the cave in November 2019 as part of the Mammoth Cave National Park Shark Fossil Research Project.
These sharks lived about 330 million years ago, in what is known as the Late Mississippi geological period, when much of North America was covered by oceans.
When they died, their remains were encased in sediment that eventually became the limestone the cave formed in.
One set of photos showed several shark teeth associated with large sections of fossilized cartilage, suggesting that a shark skeleton may have been preserved in the cave.”
said Hodnett, recounting early photos of Olson and Toomey.
There were some shark teeth, Hodnett said, but he also saw cartilage that he thought was a shark skeleton. This is very rare because cartilage is softer than bone and therefore is not always preserved.
Bigger than the “great white”…
Hodnett revealed that the fossilized remains in question belonged to the shark species Saivodus striatus from the late Mississippi Period, around 330 to 340 million years ago.
It is predicted to be about the size of a great white shark, to be about 6 meters long.
You can see the part of the shark’s jaw where it would have attached to the skull and the end that would have been its chin.”
commented Hodnett.
Part of the middle of the jaw is not visible, but he estimated it to be about 75 centimeters.
I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to see in the cave during my November trip.”
confessed the paleontologist.
When we arrived at our target specimen, my mind was blown”,
added.
According to Hodnett, members of the project determined that they had found what appear to be several teeth belonging to the shark, lower jaw and skull cartilage.
The recent find is all the more monumental due to the fact that shark skeletons, which are made of cartilage, are rarely preserved in fossils.
The paleontologist believes that the slow erosion of limestone as the reason for the preservation of shark teeth.
More significantly, most of the shark fossils we discovered came from a layer of rock that stretches from Missouri to Virginia, but they never documented the presence of sharks until now.”
said Hodnett.
It’s like finding a missing puzzle piece to a very large picture.”
emphasized.
However, scientists discovered more than just the remains of Saivodus striatus during the expedition.
The project uncovered more than 100 individual specimens from the cave, which were fossilized in rock.
These include additional teeth and dorsal fins from several shark species.
The national park is home to the oldest known cave system on Earth, and Hodnett believes the team has “only scratched the surface”.
While the park wants the public to benefit from the information gained from the cave, authorities “have a duty to protect these non-renewable resources” and will not disclose the exact location of the fossils for fear of vandalism or theft.
