NEXT PRESENTATION
WEDNESDAY, April, 15 2026, 7:00 PM at Bonita Springs Fire Station 24
Speaker: Dr. Harry Maisch, IV
Topic: FOSSIL SHARK TOOTH IDENTIFICATION AND PRESERVATION
Join us at Bonita Springs Fire Station 24 to learn about fossil shark teeth. Sharks are well represented in the geologic record over the last 100 million years from isolated teeth preserved in ancient marine deposits. Many archaeological sites in Florida have both fossil and modern shark teeth and as apex predators, shark teeth are the most common vertebrate fossils collected in the world, and they have been used as curiosity items, tools, and symbols of wealth, among other purposes, for thousands of years.
Dr. Harry Maisch is an Instructor in the Department of Marine and Earth Sciences in The Water School at Florida Gulf Coast University. He earned his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Earth and Environmental Science with a focus on geology and paleontology from the City University of New York at Brooklyn College and The Graduate Center. Dr. Maisch's research primarily focuses on Cenozoic shark and fish paleontology from the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains of the United States. The fossils he has collected on land and while SCUBA diving at various locations around the USA have unique geologic histories that are important for addressing climatic and sea-level changes over geologic time. Much of his current research focuses on the paleontology and geology of central and southwestern FL.
The Volume 78, Number 2, June 2025, pp97-122, issue of The Florida Anthropologist has an article by John Beriault and Bob Carr about the Bonita Bay Complex in southern Lee County. This is a 30-site complex that SWFAS was an active participant in identifying, recording, sampling, and excavation of many of these sites, and the Craighead Lab processed much of the excavated material. SWFAS also published the results of several of these sites. These early days of SWFAS was a very busy time for salvage archaeology, and the article describes the historical involvement of SWFAS during its early days.
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