1.36" Fossil Cow Shark (Hexanchus) Tooth - Bakersfield, CA

Fossil Cow Shark (Hexanchus) Tooth - Bakersfield, CA #243179

This is a rare, 1.36" long Cow Shark (Hexanchus andersoni) tooth from the Temblor Formation in Bakersfield, CA. These unusual shark teeth are one of the rarer teeth found at the location.

Hexanchus had a large, thick body, with a broad head and blunt snout. The top jaw has jagged, cusped teeth and the bottom jaw has comb-shaped teeth. It lived in shallow water and was an opportunistic predator feeding on animals along the bottom.

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.