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ARTICLE Shark Teeth Tell Great White Shark Evolution Story For the last 150 years, paleontologists have debated the origins of the great white shark. Many believe that they descended from the 50-foot megalodon, also known as the megatooth shark (Car...MORE STORIES


	IMAGE GALLERY MORE GALLERIES A Squalodontid Success On a beach in Piña, Panama the tide is rolling out. Faint outlines of skeletal r...
	PHOTO MORE PHOTOS Fossils Get a CT Scan When paleontologists, like the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's...
	PHOTO MORE PHOTOS Ancient Sea Cow Vertebra A fossil vertebra that a Smithsonian researcher's mother found while prospecting...

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					Fossil Jellyfish Apr 12, 2013 - 11:29AMHow long have jellyfish lived in the ocean? This jellyfish fossil is from the Cambrian period, more than 500 million years ago. It was found buried in Utah—an area that used to be underwater, covered by the ocean. Fossil...

Teeth and Jaw of an Ancient Shark

Mar 21, 2013 - 9:20AM

This well-preserved fossil is the only intact partial skull ever found of a...

Megalodon Teeth

Feb 26, 2013 - 10:35AM

Two fossilized teeth from a megalodon (Carcharodon megalodon) dating back...

SPOTLIGHT


Ediacaran Fossils: One Species at a Time When the cod fishery collapsed in Newfoundland in the early 1990s, the hopes of the local fish harvesters collapsed with it...

Bones and Teeth of South America's Oldest Fossil Whales Sep 12 2011 - 2:55pm These are fossil remains of archaeocetes, ancient whales, from the Paracas Formation of Peru's Pisco Basin. Smithsonian paleobiologist Nicholas D.	Eocene Whales and Penguins Off the Coast of Peru Sep 12 2011 - 11:43am Offshore Peru, during the Eocene (~56-34 million years ago), showing three archaeocetes (ancient whales), along with a previously described fossil penguin.
Excavating an Extinct Toothed Whale Jun 23 2011 - 11:20am A time-lapse video shows researchers from the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and Smithsonian's Tropical Research Institute racing to excavate the fossil of an extinct toothed whale on a beach in Piña, Panama. The fossil is from the Squalodontidae group, commonly known as "shark-...	Fossil tooth spiral Aug 15 2012 - 9:45am The fossil tooth whorl of the ancient shark Helicoprion, dating back 290 million years before present. For a long time, people didn't know what the shark looked like—but, thanks to a CT scan of a fossil, researchers finally put the pieces together in 2013. Read more about this story in our ...
Arm Bone Fossil of an Ancient Toothed Whale May 11 2012 - 11:46am Nick Pyenson, curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, holds an arm bone from a "toothed" mysticete from Vancouver Island. This is the second specimen found at this locality on the remote western side of Vancouver Island. Nick used a rock saw to...	Smithsonian Scientists Describe a New Fossil Whale Mar 8 2012 - 12:30pm Monodontids, the group of whales that includes living belugas and narwhals, are emblematic symbols of the Arctic. However, the fossil record shows that these animals had a much larger range than the northern pole.
Illustration of a New Fossil Whale, Bohaskaia monodontoides Mar 8 2012 - 3:49pm A reconstruction of a new fossil beluga relative, Bohaskaia monodontoides, described by Smithsonian scientists, is in the foreground. Its living relatives, the beluga and narwhal, are illustrated left to right in the background. The coloration of the extinct whale is speculative.	Teeth and Jaw of an Ancient Shark Mar 21 2013 - 9:20am This well-preserved fossil is the only intact partial skull ever found of a white shark that lived about 6.5 million years ago called Carcharodon hubbelli. The fossil jaw contains 222 teeth, some in rows up to six teeth deep, and may provide evidence that modern day great white sharks evolved from...
Dispatches from the Field: Treacherous stream crossings and a new fossil find May 11 2012 - 9:58am Editor's note: Read Nick's first blog post about "toothed" baleen whales to see what their team is excavating on Vancouver Island.	New Archaeocetes from Peru Are the Oldest Fossil Whales from South America Sep 12 2011 - 4:40pm The evolution of whales represents one of the great stories in macroevolution. It's a narrative that has mostly benefitted from an extraordinary series of fossils recovered from rocks around the world, including challenging field areas in Egypt, Pakistan, and India.
Whale fossils on the mainland, and into a CT scanner May 21 2012 - 1:23pm After a few long days of hard work on the island, we were finally able to excavate and remove, not just one, but two skeletons of an early "toothed" baleen whale from the rocks near the Carmanah Lighthouse. All told, it took our team 3 days, along with assistance from Parks Canada, a chartered...	Ediacaran Fossils: One Species at a Time Oct 27 2011 - 3:37pm When the cod fishery collapsed in Newfoundland in the early 1990s, the hopes of the local fish harvesters collapsed with it. Hundreds of Newfoundlanders moved away and businesses that depended on the cod fishery closed. But retired schoolteacher Kit Ward of Portugal Cove South wasn’t content to...
Foraminifera on the Seafloor Mar 26 2010 - 12:01pm Dr. Karen Bice studies the foraminifera in ocean sediment to better understand climate change.	Shark Ancestors Dec 17 2009 - 6:55pm Long before great white sharks appeared, much larger ancestors roamed the ocean. This giant ancient shark -- the Giant Megatooth (Carcharodon megalodon) -- was probably big enough to eat a whale.
Megalodon Teeth Feb 26 2013 - 10:35am Two fossilized teeth from a megalodon (Carcharodon megalodon) dating back more than 20 million years.	Excavating a "toothed" baleen whale from Vancouver Island May 7 2012 - 3:34pm The whales that we see in today's world can broadly be split into two groups: those with teeth (odontocetes), and those that have baleen (mysticetes) instead of teeth. These two groups share a common ancestor in the Eocene, which had teeth (They looked a lot like the ancient whale skeletons in the...