Plum Point
- Catalog Number:
- 50369
- Specimen Count:
- 5
- Precise Locality:
- Locality:
- US Mid Atlantic (PA, NJ, MD, DE, DC, VA, WV)
- Collecting Locality:
- North America, United States, Maryland, Calvert County
- Cabinet:
- 28
- Drawer/Shelf:
- 01
- Upper Level Taxonomy:
- Animalia, Chordata, Vertebrata, Chondrichthyes, Elasmobranchii, Selachii, Carchariidae
Fish skeletons made of cartilage are rare in the fossil record because cartilage rarely fossilizes. However, the mineralized teeth and scales of these fishes can be abundant as fossils. Shark teeth are made of dentin laid down around the pulp cavity with a thin, durable outer layer of enameloid (enamel-like biomineral). Possible shark teeth have been found in fossil beds dating to the Ordovician (about 450 million years ago). Complete specimens of early sharks are first known from about 400 million-year-old rocks (the Devonian). Most of these ancient sharks died out at the end of the Permian (about 250 million years ago). New groups of sharks diversified during the Mesozoic, along with dinosaurs. These neoselachians (“new sharks”) included the ancestors of modern sharks. They ate cephalopods, fish, and perhaps even reptiles living in the sea. The body plan of modern sharks, including powerful jaws and a streamlined body propelled by a powerful tail fin, has allowed them to diversify and persist to the present day.