Shark Fossils in Arizona
You wouldn't have seen Megalodon swimming around the ancient reefs of Arizona, but you would have seen his evil distant cousin, the devil tooth shark!
In Northern Arizona, we find shark fossils in the Kaibab Formation that date back 260 million years to the Permian Period. These fossils show us that there was a very interesting marine ecosystem where sharks and their relatives were at the top of the food chain.
One of the most interesting shark-like fish found in the Kaibab Formation is Kaibabvenator, a distant shark relative that was 6 meters (18 feet) long with massive teeth very similar to those of a Great White Shark. And then there’s Diablodontus. It was a little shark, only about 1 meter (3 feet) in length, but it was called Diablodontus because of the strange devil-like horns on top of its head.
It’s amazing to think that there were sharks swimming in Arizona 45 million years before the first dinosaur!
If you want to learn more about ancient sharks, come check us out at Tyrannostorus!