BOISE, Idaho — With mid-July being shark week, it's worth remembering that Gem State was once under prime water for a certain type of saltwater predator.
Let's take it back roughly 270 million years to hook into Idaho's rich history of sharks.
Idaho Museum of Natural History Director and Paleontologist, Dr. Leif Tapanila, said Idaho was covered in water.
"We were the west coast of North America, long before Oregon, Washington, and California," said Dr. Tapanila. "We were the shallow ocean."
Still today, we don't know a lot about what's in our ocean, but as the water receded in Idaho, it made for a splashing discovery.
Sharks were in Idaho. They are called the buzz saw sharks for reasons that seem obvious when you look at their teeth. It looks like something you'd find in a shop class.
"It's got a spiral of teeth that are located right in the center of the jaw, in the lower jaw, which is really weird place for teeth to be, but that's how these animals work," said Dr. Tapanila. "We find that these fossils are usually a spiral of about 120 teeth, small ones in the middle, they get gradually bigger to the outer band, sometimes it'll band out four times and we find those fossils pretty commonly in the rocks here in southeast Idaho."
The shark is also known as a Whorl Tooth Shark, and they were giant.
"We suspect they were about 35 plus feet in length," said Dr. Tapanila. "The biggest animal on the planet at the time, right here in Idaho."
Dr. Tapanila said he dedicates his life to unearthing Idaho's history.
"We find them on occasion," he said. "We went out in the Tetons to go looking for them where they're all in this region. It's really fun."
Dr. Tapanila said while people might not know Idaho is home to these sharks, we do know that Idaho is home to mines that have been open for more than a century, digging up phosphorus for fertilizer.
It's that digging that led to the discovery.
"Those very same rocks are really good at preserving fossil sharks, so those are ancient ocean rocks and on that seafloor, the bodies and teeth of sharks have been landing and get preserved in those rocks," he said. "For over 100 years, we've known that there are sharks in the hills effectively, and they've been dug up over the years and some of them have made their way into museums like ours."
The fossils were found mostly in Eastern Idaho in places like Soda Springs and Fort Hall.
While you can't find these sharks alive in our waters now, the Idaho Museum of Natural History in Pocatello has fossils and replicas up to scale for you to learn more about.
"It's really a mind-blower to think that like these animals were here and we've got the fossils to show that," he said.