450 – 0 million years old

Sharks probably originated during the Silurian Period about 433 million years ago. Unfortunately, not much of these sharks has been found in the geological record: just only a few scales. The absence of any other fossil evidence has sparked debate among scientists whether sharks really existed since the Silurian Period or not. The very first real recognizable sharks only emerged in the Devonian about 360 million years ago. These very first sharks looked very different from what we are used to: they looked more like today’s fish. It was not until 100 million years ago that sharks as we know them emerged. Of the known species, the hammerhead shark originated about 50 million years ago. The infamous white shark, on the other hand, originated about 16 million years ago; long before humans walked the earth. At present, about 512 species are known.

One of the most famous sharks is of course the gigantic Megalodon. The Megalodon, also called large tooth, had teeth of 15 centimeters: hence the name. This species originated about 23 million years ago and became extinct 3.6 million years ago.

Other sharks, on the other hand, were much smaller and thus had much smaller teeth. Fossil shark teeth can be found almost all over the world. Even on a beach in the Netherlands, although you have to look carefully! The fossil teeth that we sell in our webshop are mainly found in Morocco, but can also come from other countries. In addition to the teeth, we also sell fossil bones in our webshop.