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Shark Tooth
7 cm long x 4.2 cm wide
Abbe Museum archaeologists found
this shark tooth at a shell midden site in Frenchman
Bay. The tooth is fossilized and is from Carcharocles
megalodon, an extinct great white shark. It
lived during the Miocene to Pliocene eras, from 30
to 10 million years ago.
We can only speculate as to how
the tooth ended up at an Indian encampment 2,000 years
ago. It’s likely that someone found it –
these kinds of fossils can be discovered along the
beaches of the southeast. Eventually, it may have
been traded or carried north until it was lost or
discarded when the people left the camp.
Archaeologists excavating
a site in Canada found a smaller shark tooth that
they determined was used as a perforating tool. |
