In 1986, a young geology student named Richard Glenn made a discovery a strange looking fossil in a chunk of rock near Atigun Gorge. The fossil was sent to the Smithsonian Institute where it was identified as the teeth whorl of a Helicoprion, an extinct predatory fish that is estimated to have lived about 280 million years ago. The jaw bone of the creature resembles a circular chop saw, giving the creature it’s common name: the Buzz Saw Shark!

Although the Helicoprion is not a descendant of the modern day shark, nor do current theories support the jaw bone spinning like a buzz saw, this enormous, ancient fish is still fascinating. And for some reason, one was wandering around in the farthest reaches of Alaska.

The Helicoprion was a cartilaginous fish with an elaborate whorl of teeth set in the middle of its mouth. Current theories suggest that the fish chomped its prey into pieces with an enormously powerful bite over the tooth whorl.
James St. John | Flickr
Since the initial discovery in 1899, scientists have come up with many different ideas about how the Helicoprion looked. Since their bodies were made of cartilage, no skeletons remain to tell us what they looked like.
James St. John | Flickr
The Helicoprion was roughly double the size of the largest great white currently on record! A tooth whorl was discovered that was 45 cm, indicating the full-size fish was more than 12 meters long!
Elias Levy | Flickr

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Helicoprion sharks had scales on their body surface. Such scales result in no ripples and no sound while swimming — a useful feature in a marine predator.
James St. John | Flickr
The nightmarish jaw of the Helicoprion has been found in the Ural Mountains, Western Australia, China and Western North America, including the Canadian Arctic, Mexico, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Texas, Utah, California, and Alaska.
Charles (Chuck) Peterson | Flickr
The fossil found in Anuktuvik Gorge was lost for 29 years in the Smithsonian Institute, but after a display last year in Seward at the Alaska Sea Life Center, it is now U.S. government property.
Christopher Sessums | Flickr
The giant, deadly Helicoprion, silently gliding through the ocean, will live on in our nightmares.
Feels Like Winter Out There! | Flickr

Here is a scholarly article in Biology Letters about the Helicoprion.

You may be interested in This Eerie Beach In Alaska Looks Like A Dragon’s Lair and Most People Don’t Know The Spooky Secret Of This Ancient Lake In Alaska.

What do you know about the Buzz Saw Shark? Tell us about it in the comments below.

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