Description

Megachasma applegatei
Early Miocene (Saucesian)
Jewett Sand
Pyramid Hill, Kern County, California, USA

Approximately 10mm shark tooth. Chipped root, but crazy rare.

Lamniformes, Megachasmidae.

Megachasma applegatei is an early species of megamouth shark known only from isolated teeth from just a few Late Oligocene-Early Miocene sites in Oregon and California.

These teeth had been known to science since at least the early 1960’s but were finally officially described in 2014. Back in the 60’s, no one knew what they were, suspecting they belonged to an extinct relative of sand tiger sharks. When the modern megamouth shark was discovered in 1976 and its dentition was studied, it became apparent that the Early Miocene teeth belonged to a close relative.

These teeth are seldom for sale because the more productive sites for them have been closed to collecting for about 40 years. Those that have been for sale have come out of old collections.

The species is named in honor of the late Shelton Applegate, a paleoichthyologist at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History during the 1960’s and 1970’s.