Return to Sharktooth Hill, Kern County, Californiaby Nick Pyenson & Randall Irmis (page 1 of 3) |
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If one were to name the top five fossil sites in California, the Sharktooth Hill locality would turn up on just about any paleontologist’s list. For over 150 years, amateurs and professionals alike have collected Miocene marine fossils from Sharktooth Hill and associated outcrops throughout Kern County, California. First formally documented by renowned paleontologist Louis Agassiz in 1856, these rocks capture a snapshot of the nearshore ocean ecosystems that existed in the North Pacific during the middle Miocene, around 16 million years ago. Though much of Sharktooth Hill’s fossil wealth became part of private collections, a great deal has been reposited at the California Academy of Sciences, UCMP, and other institutions.
Preserving the site |
Some of the fossil shark teeth from Sharktooth Hill that reside in the UCMP collections. (photo by Nick Pyenson)
to the well-known shark teeth for which the Hill was named in particular the teeth of the legendary and monstrous great white shark, Carcharodon megalodon.
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