The Strange Case of the Buzzsaw Jaws

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to http://to.pbs.org/DonateEons ↓ More info below ↓ There are many fossils that challenge our ability to form even the most basic idea of how a living thing looked, or lived, or functioned. One of the longest-running of these mysteries involved a 270-million-year-old sea creature called Helicoprion that once swam the seas around the supercontinent of Pangea. Produced for PBS Digital Studios. Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet? Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/eonsshow Twitter - https://twitter.com/eonsshow Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/eonsshow/ References: http://www.academia.edu/28463128/ART_IN_PALEONTOLOGY_THE_RECONSTRUCTION_OF_EXTINCT_ANIMALS http://paleobiology.si.edu/helicoprion/ http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/9/2/20130057 https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/running-ponies/prehistoric-ghost-shark-helicoprions-spiral-toothed-jaw-explained/ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249440368_A_new_specimen_of_Helicoprion_Karpinsky_1899_from_Kazakhstanian_Cisurals_and_a_new_reconstruction_of_its_tooth_whorl_position_and_function http://jpaleontol.geoscienceworld.org/content/87/6/965 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jmor.20319/full