Sharktooth Hill, on rare occasions, produces a Carcharodon tooth. There are two ways of assessing the proper species. The traditional is to assume it's Pliocene material that has worked its way into the exposure, the newer thinking questions the species itself.

In a scenario developed for the first opinion, these teeth originated from Carcharodon carcharias (LINNAEUS, 1758) during the Pliocene. Channels created during that epoch permited an accumulation of Pliocene material that was later exposed in otherwise Miocene deposits. Unfortunately, associated material from the depositional environment of these teeth has not been documented. The underlying logic for this position is that the tooth is C. carcharias, a Pliocene species, therefore, the Miocene exposure has been "corrupted" with Pliocene material.

An alternative scenario suggests that the depositional observations are correct and that the teeth were infact produced by a Miocene great white, a species more commonly refered to as Isurus (Carcharodon) escheri AGASSIZ, 1843 . The wear observable on the illustrated tooth precludes odontological hair-spliting, but it provides sufficient detail to argue that it represents a design reflected by I. escheri teeth, the Sacaco dentition and the teeth being studied by Hideo Yabe.

Great White teeth are possibly the rarest teeth to come out of Bakersfield as only a handful have been recovered and the imaged tooth may be the largest specimen found.

Carcharodon sp. (escheri/carcharias) slant height 7.8 cm (3-1/16"), width 5.7 cm

Also see:
Lee Creek Carcharodon by Bill Heim