Visiting a Time Gone By – Buzz Saw Sharks!

Museum of Natural and Cultural History, UO campus, Eugene, OR

One of our group attendees is a docent at the Museum, and she invited us to see the display about the “buzz saw sharks.”

1        2Alaskan artist Ray Troll had several imagined paintings of them on display – here’s Jane in front of a self-portrait of Ray & the shark.

3      4They’re actually called “helicoprion,” and their remains were found in Idaho (because Oregon was way below sea level then). Barb Stevens-Newcomb really enjoyed being our museum tour guide.

BA-1    BA-2    BA-3Barbara Aten got right into sketching the imagined model of the shark, accompanied by Tricia. Her last step was to add the sea water, but you’ll have to come back to see the final sketch.

T-1    T-2    T-3Tricia tackled the buzz saw shark, too, but had to add the saber tooth salmon – those were dangerous days way back when!

BS-1   BS-2   BS-3Meanwhile, Barb Sh was trying to keep track of the bones of the giant sloth, relying on her anatomy training – it worked!

P-1    P-2    P-3And Penelope was fascinated with the old remains of the saw tooth shark’s “whorl” of teeth – got it!