1.25" Hooked White Shark Tooth Fossil on Sandstone - Bakersfield, CA

Hooked White Shark Tooth Fossil on Sandstone - Bakersfield, CA #238324

Here is a nicely preserved Hooked White shark, upper jaw tooth (Carcharodon (Isurus) planus) found at Sharktooth Hill near Bakersfield, California. These teeth have beautiful coloration which is quite distinct to the location. Quite impressive for a tooth that's 15 million years old.

The tooth has been exposed from the sandstone it was found in. Additional bones can be found scattered throughout the sandstone as well. The slight green tint of the sandstone is a result of the stabilization process.

The exact classification of these teeth has been hotly debated for several decades. Historically, these teeth have been classified as a mako shark (Isurus planus or Cosmopolitodus planus) but more recent research has suggested they fall into the white shark lineage (Carcharodon planus), You can read more about this here.

Sharktooth Hill is located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Bakersfield, California. It represents an exposure of the Temblor Formation, a middle-Miocene marine deposit. 15 million years ago the sea levels were substantially higher, and central California was covered by what is known as the Temblor Sea.

Two highly fossiliferous bone beds in the formation were created when fossils originally deposited at the bottom of the sea eroded out of the rocks, were concentrated by ocean currents, and subsequently reburied. Because the fossils in these bone beds are reworked, only isolated teeth and bones are found in these beds.

Today, the original Sharktooth Hill is a National Natural Landmark, but private property surrounding it contains operational pay-to-dig fossil quarries.