Considering how far away from the ocean it is, Kentucky is probably one of the last places anyone would expect to find ancient shark remains.
In terms of the Earth's entire existence, the human race has only really been here for the blink of an eye. That can be an almost unfathomable thing to contemplate for some people. Not that the planet was once completely void of human life, but that different animals that have since gone extinct called it home.
What's even stranger is some of the creatures we share the planet with today also shared it with some of those animals which are now long gone. Many species of reptiles and birds walked the Earth with the dinosaurs and some of them even descended from them. Sharks have also been around for an awfully long time, which brings us yo a recent and very exciting discovery.
RELATED: Family Cleans House & Finds Tortoise They Lost In 1982 Alive & Well
Shark fossils that date back 330 million years, bringing us right back to those things that are almost impossible to fathom. This discovery isn't your run-of-the-mill finding for more than just its age, though. The fossils have been found in a cave in the Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky, reports CNN Travel. Geography aficionados among you will know Kentucky is a long way from the ocean.
330 million years ago, that was not the case. In fact, most of North America was underwater at the time. The scientists who discovered the fossils explained that the sharks' bodies would have been encased in sediment once they died, and that sediment has become limestone over the course of 330 million years. The fossils were not easy to come by either, as the cave they were found in requires scientists to crawl on their hands and knees for a quarter of a mile to reach it.
Most exciting of all is that this isn't the beginning and end of the discovery. Chances are there are more shark remains embedded deep within the rock. Getting to them will be something else entirely, though. The first problem will be getting equipment to the site through that quarter of a mile long gap, and then scientists will have to be careful what they're hacking away at once they overcome that first problem.
NEXT: Disney+ Confirms Release Dates For Its First Two MCU TV Shows
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEq6CcoJWowW%2BvzqZmraCZo7S0e9KcoJ6mpJ7Atb%2BMnaCsm5%2BrsrN5kmxnZqWZobmqu81msJ6ZomK8rbCMrJ%2Baqptis7C%2F0qKjrGc%3D