Shark fossil found in Kentucky coal mine

LEXINGTON, Ky., April 12 (UPI) -- Scientists say a fossil found 700 feet underground by a Kentucky coal miner is the jaw of a giant shark that lived around 300 million years ago.

Jay Wright, a miner for Webster Country Coal, discovered the black jaw and still-sharp teeth in February when a rock fell as he was working in the Dotiki mine, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported Monday.

"I looked up to see if any more was going to fall, and that's when I noticed the jaw," Wright told the newspaper.

The find came to the attention of Jerry Weisenfluh, associate director of the Kentucky Geological Survey in Lexington, who identified it as the jaw of a shark from the Edestus genus.

An Edestus find is rare, he said, and one this big -- estimated to have been 20 to 25 feet long -- is rarer still.

"It would have been an intimidating animal," Weisenfluh said.

The jawbone will be on display at the University of Kentucky for a month and then will be returned to Wright, the father of three children, ages 4, 3 and four months.

"They don't know what it is, but they know that Daddy did something," Wright said.