Huge Fossil Shark Tooth - Otodus Obliquus still embedded in rock

This massive fossilized shark tooth once graced the jaws of an enormous shark that swam the Paleocene Seas

42 - 68 Million years ago! ( Paleocene to Eocene Period )

Size of Tooth : 50 x 86mm ( slant height )

Size of Rock : 120 x 80 x 65mm

This Shark was "Otodus Obliquus" an extinct Mackerel Shark.

This shark was a highly developed predator and is believed by paleontologists, to be at the heart of the Great White family tree and the original ancestor of the great Megalodon.

How does a tooth become a fossil....?

A shark looses and replaces + - 20 000 teeth in it's life time.

The tooth becomes buried in the sea bed.The sediment in which it is buried precludes oxygen and harmful bacteria from destroying it.Over time the tooth absorbs minerals from the surrounding sediment and this is what determines the colour.

A tooth is only considered a fossils once it is 10 000 years old!