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.
This shark's tooth was found at a site in Frenchman Bay.