SHARKS
were already ancient when the first tree broke ground
In the fossil record, sharks show up before trees do.
scroll
drag across the timeline
420
million years, and that is the conservative number
Tiny scales, crowns about 0.4 mm across, from early Silurian deposits in Siberia, assigned to the genus Elegestolepis.
The earliest undisputed fossils from true sharks are various fossilized shark scales dating back approximately 420 million years, which have been obtained from early Silurian Period deposits in Siberia, Russia. They have been assigned to the genus *Elegestolepis*.
Shark evolution: a 450 million year timeline
385
million years before anything had a trunk
Wattieza and then Archaeopteris — the first plants with trunks and true forests. Land plants long predate them; mosses and liverworts were there before sharks.
probably the first true tree to form forests during the Late Devonian Epoch (about 385 to 359 million years ago)
The World's Oldest Forest Has 385-Million-Year-Old Tree Roots
35 MILLION
years of sharks in an ocean with no forest on any shore
420 minus 385. On the contested reading it is 65 million — the script uses the conservative figure.
and there is an older number
There are older scales, from 450 million years back, but paleontologists still argue about whether those are true sharks.
Late Ordovician scales. Whether they belong to true sharks or to very close relatives is unresolved.
earliest true shark fossils.
GO LOOK
at the next tree you stand under
Next time you stand under a tree, remember that something was already old when the first one grew.
Drag the timeline to see how little of Earth's history has had trees in it. Toggle the disputed marker to watch the gap change.
“Sharks are older than Saturn's rings”
Cassini implies a short ring EXPOSURE time, which is not formation age, and the question is actively contested. Live scientific disagreement is not a fact.
cut from the title, where it would have been the better hook
“Sharks are 450 million years old”
Adopts a contested figure as settled.
“Sharks are unchanged / living fossils”
Widely repeated and wrong. The lineage has evolved throughout.
Publishing what we refused to claim is the strongest evidence the rest was checked.