Last week on Fossil Friday, I presented you with a tooth from a sea animal. What is it? I asked. Where is it from? Many of you were quick to identify it as a shark tooth, but Dr. GS Hurd was the first to get the species right: Otodus obliquus.
From the Australian Museum:
"O. Obliquus is an extinct mackerel shark (family Lamnidae) that is believed to have grown to about 9 m in length. The species lived during Paleocene–Eocene times, about 60 to 37.5 million years ago. O. obliquus likely preyed upon marine mammals, large bony fish, and other sharks."
This tooth in particular was found in what is now Morocco, but I found it in San Francisco, for sale at the American Geophysical Union meeting next to geodes and other shiny things. No matter how you feel about selling fossils, it was a pretty toothsome find!
Thanks to all who played this week! Stay tuned for more fossil fun this Friday!
