Imagine my surprise when I stumbled across this fossil shark tooth at Beaumaris fossil beach.
The weather was nice and the high tide was not too high. So we took a dip. I was mostly looking for seahorses (with no success). But came across some Painted Stinkfish, which are always nice. But this one wasn’t very photogenic.
This fossil shark tooth at Beaumaris is a Carcharadon hastalis, a 5 million year old species which was described from fossils in 1838. This tooth measures 58mm. Not the biggest specimen but at roughly 25.4mm tooth = 3m shark, this would have been almost 7m long. This ancestor of Great Whites lacks the serrated edge. It was half-buried in sand with only the tip visible, just near the beach in Bayside, Melbourne.
It’s not the first I’ve found.
