80-million-year-old shark teeth found in Solomon-era site in Jerusalem

Archaeologists have uncovered a mysterious stash of 80-million-year-old fossilized shark teeth at a 2,900-year-old site in Jerusalem’s City of David.

The 29 teeth are from animals that lived during the late dinosaur period. Researchers do not know how they came to Jerusalem, but say it is clear they were transported there by people, and may have been part of a collection.

The site where they were found dates to the time of King Solomon.

“They were probably valuable to someone, we just don’t know why,” says lead researcher Dr. Thomas Tuetken of the University of Mainz in Germany.

The City of David and the sharks' #teeth mystery @frontiersin https://t.co/AUhxCcoS4h

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“They were not simply weathered out of the bedrock beneath the site, but were probably transported from afar, possibly from the Negev, at least 80 kilometers away, where similar fossils are found.”