Meg MawLTM
Fossilized Shark Teeth on the Internet
OWN A PIECE OF DEEP TIME!TM
Sharktooth Hill
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Sharktooth Hill northeast of Bakersfield, California, is the most famous section of the Round Mountain Silt Member of the Temblor Formation. Fossil from this formation were first found in the 1850s by surveyors who happened to stumble upon the bone beds while surveying for the railroads. This section of Central California was covered by ocean in the Middle Miocene and now contains the single largest assemblage of Middle Miocene marine vertebrate animal fossils in the world.
400 acres, which includes the fabled "Sharktooth Hill", are now owned by one individual who allows very few public visits. This area is considered by scientists to contain one of the most fertile and accessible marine-fossil-bone beds from the mid-Miocene period known to man.
Depending on the land contour, 25 to 30 feet of "overlay" must be removed to get down to the 2 fossil layers. The "overlay" is dug out with heavy equipment. The first fossil layer that is exposed is a younger layer containing more complete skulls and skeletons that settled about 4 feet above and a few hundred thousand years after the second, lower layer. This top layer is undisturbed and fossils were deposited in calm water and generally lie where they came to rest from shedding or the animal's death. Complete skeletons are sometimes found in the upper layer but rarely found in the lower.
The lower 8-to-12 inch bone bed is more compact and far more jumbled. The strata was formed by deposits from an ancient river delta. The fossils bones, teeth, rock and petrified wood were scattered and dispersed from their original resting place and are sometimes piled up together.
All of the matrix pieces for sale by MegMawl came from this lower layer. These pieces started out as large clumps of sandy clay. If we were lucky, there was a tooth edge showing. Hours of meticulous hand labor exposed the fossils to the light of day for the first time in 13 to 15 million years. The pieces are then stablized with a fixative to prevent further erosion.
The fossils from this locale have taken on some very unique coloration found nowhere else in the world. The impurities in the surrounding sediment have imparted rich grays, pinks and blues to the fossils found here. One of the defining characteristic colorations is the BLACK inclusions in some fossils caused by the presence of manganese.
Links to Other Informative Sites:
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A Visit To The Sharktooth Hill Bonebed, California
Elasmo.com - Sharktooth Hill
Sharktooth Hill Article - Bone Appetite
Sharktooth Hill Foundation
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