HUGE SHARK TOOTH

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 78, 12 January 1949, Page 2

HUGE SHARK TOOTH

DISCOVERY IN LIME WORKS

(P.A.) WHANG AREI, Jan. 11. A tooth 21 inches long and varying from five-eighths of an inch to one and a half inches in width was recently unearthed at the Pnrua lime works near Whangarei. It was almost black in colour with a shiny surface. Its edges were serrated. The tooth was sent to the Geological Survey Office at Wellington, the Acting Director of which lias now identified it as a tooth belonging to an extinct species of shark, which lived about 50,000,000 years ago. A' similar tooth was found in the greensand at Pahi in the Kaipara district some time ago. The discovery was not. of outstanding scientific interest, said the Act-ing-Director of Geological. Survey, Dr. J. Markwick, interviewed in Wellington. Similar ones had been found in other parts of New Zealand in rocks about the .same age or somewhat younger. The species of shark had been extinct for several million years, although there was a. living species of the genus to which it belonged or was related-

Sharks’ teeth were attractive and easily noticed, but the beds in which they were found in many places contained other forms of marine life not so easily seen. In some beds these went back 400.000.000 years. However, beds containing remains 200 to 400 million years old were not very common.