Stream Now
Shows
See All Shows
Gold Rush
Naked and Afraid
Expedition Unknown
Deadliest Catch
Moonshiners
Harpoon Hunters
Homestead Rescue
See All Shows
Schedule
Mammoth Cave National ParkMammoth Cave National Park

504572338

Mammoth Cave National ParkMammoth Cave National Park

Photo by: ZRF Photo

ZRF Photo

A 300 Million Year Old Shark Skull Was Discovered Inside Kentucky Cave

By: Luke Tipple

Paleontologists have now found and identified the fossilized remains of around 150 individual sharks from between 15 and 20 different species buried in the limestone layers of the cave.

February 14, 2020

Around 700 miles from the nearest beach is probably the last place you’d expect to find a giant shark, but that’s exactly what happened recently at Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave National Park.

It’s not uncommon to find shark fossils in the Kentucky region but when cave scientists Rick Olson and Rick Toomey unearthed several shark teeth during a 3D mapping project, and what turned out to be a massive fossilized shark head, they knew they were on to something big. They sent photos to a colleague John-Paul Hodnett who is an expert in Paleozoic (542 to 241 million year old) sharks.

Hodnett went to the cave to see the specimens for himself. "I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to see in the cave during my trip in November,” Hodnett told Emma Austin of the Courier-Journal. “When we got to our target specimen my mind was blown.”

The biggest shark found so far is of the species Saivodus striatus which grew to around 30 feet, bigger than a Great White Shark. Saivodus striatus is a ctenacanth shark, distant cousins to modern sharks and pretty fearsome fish in their own right.

“All ctenacanths bare elongated dorsal spines, similar to those seen in living horn sharks and dogfish” Hodnett explained, the head that we found was from “one of the largest ctenacanths to evolve”. This armored shark was a mega predator and predates the megalodon by hundreds of millions of years. Despite this pedigree they likely had a different feeding strategy as their teeth were more adapted to grabbing than cutting through flesh.

The paleontologists have now found and identified the fossilized remains of around 150 individual sharks from between 15 and 20 different species buried in the limestone layers of the cave. This is exciting for a couple of reasons; sharks are cool, old mega sharks are even cooler, and we now know that this area of Kentucky used to be both underwater (as was much of North America) and home to a very healthy shark population.

"We literally just scratched the surface, and the sharks are just coming out from that scratch," Hodnett CNN. "So, hopefully, with more field work, we'll get another good batch of specimens to kind of help get at least some more rich diversity."

Luke Tipple

Luke Tipple is a trained marine biologist and the host of Discovery Channel’s Nature Minute. Luke has hosted two major network survival game shows, multiple Shark Week documentaries on Discovery, as well as producing and hosting series for Travel channel and Snapchat. Tipple also recently qualified for his private pilot license and enjoys flying his own aircraft.

Next Up

There’s a Lot You Don’t Know About Sharks

But in the meantime, here are some fin-tastic facts you probably didn’t know about sharks.

Shark Week: The Podcast - How To Have A Career in Shark Science

Shark Week’s Luke Tipple tackles the question “How can I work with sharks?” alongside two experts in the field – and their answers are not always the obvious ones. Luke is joined first by Kelly Link, Associate Curator of the Georgia Aquarium who talks about what it’s like to be an aquarist, how it differs from field work, and how to get yourself noticed. The second guest is Dr. Neil Hammerschlag who goes into detail on what it takes to become a prominent scientist, and what other paths you can take if a PhD isn’t for you. And at the end, researcher Sierra stops by to tell us about the world’s smallest shark.

Shark Week: The Podcast - Do You Have the Guts to Be a Shark Handler?

Host Luke Tipple welcomes a pair of divers – Leigh Cobb and Josh Eccles – who have taken their passion for sharks and turned it into a dangerous career. They explore what it takes to swim with sharks for a living, then go into common myths and facts on what to do in the open water – if you ever come face to face with a shark. Plus, our researcher Sierra drops by with a new species of shark discovered in the freezing depths of the ocean.

Shark Week: The Podcast - How Did a Shark Encounter Survivor Become an Advocate for Their Protection?

Shark Week’s Luke Tipple welcomes professional photographer Mike Coots, who lost his leg to a tiger shark attack when he was only 18. But after his horrific injury, he came to love sharks, and became a lifelong advocate for their safety. Luke and Mike discuss his career, his love for photographing sharks, and how to positively approach the big life-changing moments that can happen to any of us.

Shark Week: The Podcast - Why is Tagging Baby Great White Sharks So Important?

Luke Tipple speaks with Dr. Riley Elliott, a marine biologist from New Zealand who recently tagged baby great white sharks, which are rarely seen in the wild. They talk about how climate change is affecting shark pupping grounds, why fishers are wrong to think there are “too many sharks,” and about Dr. Elliott’s Great White App, which allows users to track great white sharks in the ocean.

Shark Week: The Podcast - How Smart Are Sharks?

The discussion turns this week to sharks’ intelligence, and how it varies among species. Host Luke Tipple is joined by Dr. Tristan Guttridge, a behavioral ecologist and veteran of Shark Week whose research has tackled the social smarts, and even personalities, of different kinds of sharks. He sheds light on why we shouldn’t just think of them as dumb fish with rows of razor-sharp teeth. And at the end, our researcher Sierra Kehoe tells us about shark hypnosis.

Shark Week: The Podcast - Shipwrecked & Surrounded by Sharks

This week, we do things a little differently, as Shark Week’s Luke Tipple invites Adventure Aaron into the podcast studio to talk about his incredible near-death experience on the open water. Adventure Aaron gets into what it takes to circumnavigate the world in an ocean rowboat, what it’s like to stare eye-to-eye with an oceanic white tip that probably wants you for lunch, and everything else that happened to him when his boat was capsized, and he was lost by himself at sea.

Shark Week: The Podcast - What is the Status of Sharks in our Oceans?

In this season’s final episode, Luke welcomes Emmy-winning filmmaker and conservationist Shawn Heinrichs to discuss the state of sharks in the ocean. They go over how both legal and illegal fishing operations are decimating the ocean’s wildlife, what it’s like to have a hit put out on you for exposing criminal enterprises to the world, and whether or not NOAA’s data on “sustainable” fishing can really be trusted.

Shark Week: The Podcast - Did Alien Tech Crash-Land into the Ocean?

Host Luke Tipple is joined this week by renowned Harvard professor, Dr. Avi Loeb, who recently led a deep-sea expedition to discover if evidence for advanced alien life crash-landed off the coast of Papua New Guinea in 2014. They discuss the recent Congressional UFO hearings, how the last seventy years of research into extraterrestrial life has been potentially misguided, and the challenges of searching for tiny objects on the bottom of the ocean.

Shark Week: The Podcast - How Shark Fishing Funds Human Trafficking

Luke Tipple is joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of the Outlaw Ocean Ian Urbina, who has dedicated his life to chronicling crime on the high seas. They discuss the state of our world’s oceans, how nearly 20% of your seafood was likely caught illegally, and the surprising link between modern slavery and the killing of sharks.

Related To:

Wildlife