4.6" Cretaceous Fossil Shark - Hjoula, Lebanon

Cretaceous Fossil Shark - Hjoula, Lebanon #173370

This is a rare, partial fossil shark (squalimorph) from the famous Upper Cretaceous marine deposits near Hjoula, Lebanon. Like most of the sharks in the Lebanese lagerstätten, it is fairly small at 4.6" long but with nice preservation. Sharks like this are one of the rarer components of the fauna in the formation.

There are natural quartz seams through this rock where the rock naturally fractured and shifted, explaining the disarticulation of the shark. It comes with an acrylic display stand.

The discovery of amazingly preserved marine fossils near Hjoula, Lebanon dates back many centuries. In fact, they were first mentioned in writing by Herodotus, over 450 years before the birth of Christ. The first scientific work on these localities began in the 1800s: these deposits have been meticulously quarried by several Lebanese families for over a century. We purchase our specimens directly from one of these families.

These deposits represent a warm, shallow sea of the Middle Cretaceous, and have yielded over 70 types of fish and numerous other genera found nowhere else in the world. The preservation on many of these specimens is truly amazing: many examples of soft bodied preservation have been found.

A photo of one of the quarries at Hjoula, Lebanon