1.62" Cretaceous Shark (Cretoxyrhina) Tooth - Kansas

Cretoxyrhina mantelli was a large shark that lived about 100 to 82 million years ago during the late Cretaceous period. It is nicknamed the Ginsu shark in reference to the Ginsu knife, since it fed by slicing into its victims with its knife-sharp teeth. Cretoxyrhina was the largest shark in its time and was among the oceans' apex predators. Fossil records indicate that it preyed on a variety of marine animals including Mosasaurs, Plesiosaurs, bony fish like Xiphactinus, and large turtles like Archelon.

The Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Chalk formation is a Cretaceous conservation Lagerstätte, or fossil-rich geological formation, known primarily for its exceptionally well-preserved marine reptiles. It outcrops in parts of northwest Kansas--its most famous localities for fossils--and in southeastern Nebraska. Large, well-known fossils excavated from the Smoky Hill Chalk include marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs, large bony fish such as Xiphactinus, mosasaurs, pterosaurs, and turtles.