US DOLLAR
EURO
AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR
CANADIAN DOLLAR
POUND STERLING
Product Description
This is a collection of 12 premium fossil shark teeth of various species all found in the world-famous Bone Valley Formation of Central Florida. Why is Bone Valley famous for fossils? These gorgeous teeth will have colors unlike any other fossil location in the world. The top four long teeth are from the Sand Tiger shark, Carcharias taurus. The next row down is a tooth from the Tiger shark, Galeocerdo cuvier on the left, and the Snaggletooth shark, Hemipristis serra. The third row from the top features three stunning teeth of the Lemon shark, Negaprion brevirostris. The bottom row has three teeth of the Bull shark, Carcharhinus leucas. The colors of these fossil shark teeth are so unique and they are ONLY FOUND AT THIS FAMOUS SITE.
All teeth were collected by us many, many years ago when it was legal to enter the phosphate mines. See photos of some of those past trips below. Countless hours were spent climbing spoil piles in the record-hot sun and mud to find this modest set! Since over 30 years ago, the mines have forbid entry by fossil collectors aside from a few useless club hunts over already picked-over areas. This would be a perfect fossil shark teeth study collection for class or clubs. Bone Valley offers a highly unique formation to produce fossils with colors that are not seen ANYWHERE else on the planet!
HISTORY
From the middle Miocene, 16 million years ago to the earliest Pliocene, about 4.5 million years ago, no other region in North America can claim a more varied and richer wealth of important vertebrate fossil finds than from the famous BONE VALLEY region in the phosphate mining district of Central Florida. During this time, thick forests and grassy plains covered a stubby peninsula that only went as far south to what is now Polk County. If you were to visit this area at that time, you would find six-foot tortoises, shovel-tusked mastodons, hornless rhinos, humpless camels, iguanas, gila monsters, and 30-foot crocodiles. The warm waters surrounding the area were filled with a rich variety of life as well, including long-beaked dolphins, bony fish, rays, sea cows and sharks including the notorious and now extinct giant killer shark, megalodon.
Bone Valley fossils are rare and highly-priced specimens. Due to the unique geological characteristics of the phosphate-rich region, most of the fossils are beautifully preserved with amazing detail and color. Unlike the majority of southeastern U.S. fossils retrieved from rivers and streams, Bone Valley specimens are found in dry earth and are not stained with the typical cruddy black and brown muck from rivers. Because Bone Valley fossils comprise so much variety of both ancient marine and terrestrial creatures, along with their unique and rare beauty of preservation, specimens from this locality are very rare and of great value to any fossil collection.
